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Vintage Tape (Audio), Cassette, Wire and Magnetic Disc Recorders and Players Open-reel tape recorders, cassette recorders, 8-track players etc.

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Old 15th Apr 2017, 10:14 pm   #1
Tractorfan
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Smile Tape recorder spotter's heaven!

Hi,
Apologies if I've posted this in the wrong place.
I've started watching the 1960s spy series 'Danger Man' with Patrick McGoohan on YouTube (just for nostalgic reasons, you understand ), and I noticed how often assorted tape recorders feature in various episodes.
Some are obviously mocked up, such as tiny ones hidden inside electric razors, pocket radios and the like. And others are standard ones which I can occasionally identify, but others I have never seen before.
Just thought I'd share for the benefit of our erstwhile tape recorder fraternity.
Cheers, Pete.
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Old 16th Apr 2017, 10:47 am   #2
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Default Re: Tape recorder spotter's heaven!

Link ?
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Old 16th Apr 2017, 11:13 am   #3
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Default Re: Tape recorder spotter's heaven!

I'm a tape-recorder spotter too. The Avengers features quite a few, most of them non-recognisable but very nice looking. I drive my wife nuts by pausing the DVD to inspect them for makers' names.
One thing I always find with tape recorder shots is that in one shot the tape is near the end, then in the next shot it's only halfway though! The continuity girls must think we won't notice!
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Old 16th Apr 2017, 11:57 am   #4
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Default Re: Tape recorder spotter's heaven!

Early small reel machines were seen in 'Thunderbirds' including one on Thunderbird 5.

Also seen in "Mission Impossible", of course, "this tape will self-destruct in 5 seconds"
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Old 16th Apr 2017, 2:37 pm   #5
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Default Re: Tape recorder spotter's heaven!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Restoration73 View Post

Also seen in "Mission Impossible", of course, "this tape will self-destruct in 5 seconds"
Trouble is, a lot of those old tapes no longer self destruct within five seconds, they did it years ago.
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Old 16th Apr 2017, 3:56 pm   #6
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Default Re: Tape recorder spotter's heaven!

I actually did invent "self-destructing tapes", many years ago; by opening up the shell of a cassette after recording the message, and inserting a small piece of magnet just upstream of the take-up spool. You got exactly one listen, unless you knew the trick.
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Old 16th Apr 2017, 4:19 pm   #7
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Default Re: Tape recorder spotter's heaven!

Julie, rather neat!
 
Old 16th Apr 2017, 9:57 pm   #8
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Smile Re: Tape recorder spotter's heaven!

Hi,
Here's a link to a 'tape recorder rich' episode which features a bank of six tape machines and a few small ones. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqY9vGGIONU
Cheers, Pete.
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Old 17th Apr 2017, 10:57 am   #9
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Default Re: Tape recorder spotter's heaven!

Oh very good, Pete. At 37 mins we are treated to Burt Kwouk operating the Ferrographs (with aid from Mike Pratt) and at 48 mins we see McGoohan fiddling with (I think) a Grundig.
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Old 17th Apr 2017, 1:42 pm   #10
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Default Re: Tape recorder spotter's heaven!

Back in the 80s, before Channel 4 discovered 'big brother' and the like, they showed a lot of 60s cult TV.

I remember seeing various machines, but the winner was easily the Vortexion! Not that common in domestic circles, but they seemed to have done a good job selling them to film companies so when a machine needed to appear on screen there it was!
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Old 17th Apr 2017, 6:52 pm   #11
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Default Re: Tape recorder spotter's heaven!

Back in the late 60's my schoolmate had a Vortexion. It was the mono one with a large rec level meter and it had variable bias. IIRC, it rewound at almost the speed of sound!
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Old 17th Apr 2017, 7:16 pm   #12
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Default Re: Tape recorder spotter's heaven!

The Thunderbird 5 machine is a Benkson, they often come up on ebay.
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Old 17th Apr 2017, 8:22 pm   #13
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Default Re: Tape recorder spotter's heaven!

Here's my Benkson, complete with packing, accessories and typed instruction sheet! Although IIRC, the Thunderbirds one was a slightly different model with a round speaker grill.
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