Van Der Molen reel to reel

[Welsh Anorak]

Hi there
This is one I haven't seen before. I remember Van der Molen as one of the cheapo catalogue/Sunday supplement badges that now are replaced by the likes of Steepletone.
However this machine is unfamiliar. It's from around 1972 and uses - surprisingly for the era - a single ECL86 output valve, a magic eye and one or two oddball transistors elsewhere. It's three speed but with no EQ switching so we know the quality to expect!
I might repair it - both spool carriers have come away from their moorings - a job for Araldite, I suspect. However there's a strange flat belt driving the right spool which might prove hard to source - it's been repaired with stamp edging!
The deck looks a little like the Truvox R44 but isn't the same - anyone know who made it? The electronics have a 'home-made' look using tagstrips and no PCB.
Glyn

[wd40addict]

I once saw inside one of these and the deck appeared to be Italian.

Regards,

Paul

[Welsh Anorak]

Hi there
Incis made some decks for VDM but this doesn't look like one I've seen before. However it does have some things in common so perhaps it's a later one.
Glyn

[Maarten]

The electronics and loudspeaker also look a bit Italian.

[ricard]

Many hi-fi turntables used flat belts, perhaps that can be a starting point for sourcing one.

[Jimmyhaflinger]

the chassis and front panel appears to be from an Italian made Incis V32 tape recorder from 1968, but the Incis has all-transistor electronics and the speaker in this one doesn't look Italian at all, it's more likely a French-made Audax

[Welsh Anorak]

Hi there
Yes - that's definitely the same deck, but as you can see the VDM one uses a magic eye valve where the Incis has a VU meter. It has a crude pause control as well that pulls the pinchroller back and brakes the spools. The odd thing is that mine appears later than your machine - the mains lead is original and is in the " new" wiring colours that came in around 1971 (someone will now exactly when). I suspect VDM bought in lots of surplus decks and made the rest using in-house electronics that was by then well out of date but easy to design and cheap to build.
The deck obviously has provision for an EQ switch but there's just a space for one in my machine.
In fact the deck itself seems fairly well made - I'll be interested to hear how it sounds. Good idea about a turntable belt, though it's about half the width. Still, as it only is used for take-up (the capstan is idler drive) it shouldn't be too critical.
Glyn

[Jimmyhaflinger]

Originally Posted by Welsh Anorak

Yes - that's definitely the same deck, but as you can see the VDM one uses a magic eye valve where the Incis has a VU meter

there was also a valved version of this Incis recorder, but the front plate was made of ivory plastic, sometimes with woodgrain trim, instead of the black plastic with aluminium trim used in later transistorized machines

[brenellic2000]

This was an Incis deck developed for Mike Van der Molen designed for upright operation and part assembled in the UK from sub-assemblies. It was launched in February 1966 but was short lived; there were two basic models, the VR4 ad VR7 with side mounted speaker. They were not hugely successful but both Coombers used it for schools language laboratories and Branch & Appleby (heads) for a small cassette duplicator. It was also briefly badge engineered for the 'catalogue' trade.

Mike was with Elizabethan.

[Nickthedentist]

It's all in your book, isn't it?!

[ben]

I have a couple of the 4 track transistorized versions, branded Kolster, awaiting their turn in the roundtuit pile. I`m hoping to get one good one from the two.

They're nothing special - basic 2 head single motor mechanical transport designs - but quite neat little units. Still haven't found out specs like frequency response, I suspect about 17,000 hz at 7.5ips tops.

I mentioned them in this thread. There are some photos of th various rebadges there too.

[brenellic2000]

Yes, and indeed it was also briefly marketed under the Decca brand for schools work. I don't have any bumph on them, but their specification was adequate for its purpose, so made it ideal for schools and cassette duplicators!