Wollensak 1980 Stereo tape w/ 7591 SE amps

[Omegaman]

Wollensak model T-1980 Stereo tape w/ 7591 SE amps

I guess I have a soft spot for Tube Stereo Reel-to-Reel tape decks. I have nine

And now the king of Wollensak reel-to-Reels.

The Model 1980 SOUND ROOM

1964 tube stereo with 7591 SE amps

Right away it looks like it has a SHARED power supply rendering it LESS than the Roberts for mono block conversion

I paid too much for it and I have to really clean it up good including some corrosion

Not an Arizona piece for sure

Tube amp CSI special victims unit - Only the trees saw what happen here Johnny

 

[Omegaman]

The amps pulled out

Here are the twin amps without the power supply. Disconnect three connectors and pull four screws in the face and each amp pops right out

First clean up, basically a soak in DeOxit

Underneath one amp

Interesting is there is an unused tube socket next to the 7591, punched for what looked like a push/pull attempt maybe?

 

[Dwartz]

Very nice machine. They do tend to go for fairly high dollars, considering they're not one of the big names in audio.

 

[Omegaman]

The reason the deck failed

It looks like the unit ate a tape in its final desperate hours.

Big bummer: All five machine screws that hold the faceplate on ARE STRIPPED

I'm going to have to drill them out or easy out them or dremel them or something

 

[vinyldavid]

That is SO COOL. I have never seen one of those before.

 

[gadget73]

Those look almost like torx screws. A dremel to cut a slot in them for a flat screwdriver will quite probably get them out, assuming you can cut the slot without wrecking the top deck. Failing that, drilling it to get rid of the screw head and then using a small pair of vise-grips to remove the rest of the screw would do the trick.

 

[Omegaman]

Showstopper

Well, I really screwed the pooch on this one. Not a single one of the 5 extracted correctly

Now I got a BIG mess on my hands. Five ruined screws and no way to attach the faceplate

Now I'm going to have to find a machinist that can drill and tap the old screw holes and for new screws

I don't feel like working on it anymore today

UPDATE: I got the transport to a machine shop/vintage restore facility. They said they can fix my bad, stupid work.

 

[ampegdan]

I've got one of these as well, picked it up at an estate sale a few years ago. One channel seems to have no output but i don't know if it's the play head or the amp for that channel. It can always put in mono duty as a practice guitar amp til I get it straightened out. Have been greatly tempted to build small guitar amp from one channel but would hate to break it up..

 

[Omegaman]

Back from the machine shop

four months later:

I got the transport back from the machine shop where they removed the stripped screws and cleaned the threads for new screws

Now I can work on the transport mechanism for the tape drive

I recapped the amps and de-oxited the controls. This was the worst piece of gear I have ever worked on. All moldy and nasty

I got it all cleared out now and after messing with connectors and multi deoxit sessions, the amps WORK GREAT.

A little noise in the fan and the tape drive needs the same careful restore as the amps

I was ready to abandon this effort but now I can move forward

 

[Wigwam Jones]

It is a lovely deck. Glad to see you restoring it, sorry it was so nasty inside!

 

[ShaneR2R]

I have the little brother to the 1980, the 1580 tube stereo unit. It also uses the 7591 tubes. I recently had the unit restored and it sounds awesome. I have a website all about the 1580. I wrote a page recently about the restoration including photos. If this link doesn't work then just Google wollensak 1580 and you will see my site. http://wollensak1580.m.webs.com/.