UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum - View Single Post - Sound Belle reel-to-reel heads

jmcilkley · 17th Oct 2020, 9:41 am

I have an old Sounds Belle tape recorder - a very neat design from the late 50s - but it unfortunately doesn't produce any sound. There is a button labelled P.A. (I guess for Public Address) which connects the microphone input straight through to the amplifier section and to the loudspeaker, and this works fine.
But nothing at all from the tape, so I suspect the play/record head may not be working. I don't have a signal injector but I managed to wire up an old ceramic record player cartridge to the wires to the tape head (as I believe the signal levels are similar) and miraculously this worked.
The tape player is only mono, of course, but the tape head has 4 connectors. Two of these are soldered together and the other two carry the signal. I'm wondering if the other two connectors are for a second channel and if I use those 2 connectors and short out the ones that are currently used, maybe this might work? Any suggestions? Or any ideas where I might find a replacement head at a price that would make this worth repairing?

17th Oct 2020, 9:41 am	#1
jmcilkley Tetrode Join Date: Jan 2020 Location: Ilkley, West Yorkshire, UK. Posts: 92	Sound Belle reel-to-reel heads I have an old Sounds Belle tape recorder - a very neat design from the late 50s - but it unfortunately doesn't produce any sound. There is a button labelled P.A. (I guess for Public Address) which connects the microphone input straight through to the amplifier section and to the loudspeaker, and this works fine. But nothing at all from the tape, so I suspect the play/record head may not be working. I don't have a signal injector but I managed to wire up an old ceramic record player cartridge to the wires to the tape head (as I believe the signal levels are similar) and miraculously this worked. The tape player is only mono, of course, but the tape head has 4 connectors. Two of these are soldered together and the other two carry the signal. I'm wondering if the other two connectors are for a second channel and if I use those 2 connectors and short out the ones that are currently used, maybe this might work? Any suggestions? Or any ideas where I might find a replacement head at a price that would make this worth repairing?