philips 4308 - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

Jimmyhaflinger · 2nd Sep 2008, 12:50 am

Hi,

I have just finished the restoration of a 1971 Philips 4308 tape recorder, "made in holland"

I got this recorder for 5 euros in a junkyard, it was really sorry looking but this is one of my favourite open reel machines, it was complete, and i had a 1974 parts donor 4308 that needed to be put to good use...

the only parts that still worked were the motor and the speaker, the cabinet and the top surface of the chassis were filthy with nicotine and the sticky black remains of the belts, as soon as i hit the "stop" key, the aluminium trim plates flew away from the keys, the circular trim pieces on the reel tables also came loose when disturbed, the cabinet was quite easy to clean but the chassis proved to be a pain and it needed to be disassembled and washed with an aggressive degreaser to remove the yellow nicotine film and the black rubber mess that was also jamming some parts of the mechanism.

The main belt was NLA so i replaced it with an O-ring, believe it or not this works just fine, luckily the rubber inserts in the reel clutches were made from a better, unusual pink coloured rubber and were still in excellent condition, while the ones made from the common black rubber are usually dissolving in a sticky mess...

i finally reassembled the mechanism and moved on to the amplifier, the sound from the speaker output was feeble and distorted, as it turned out, the AC187 o/p stage driver transistor was bad, after replacing it, the sound came back clear and loud... well, too loud, at full blast, and the volume control had no effect... the volume pot's carbon track was o/c to ground, a replacement pot from the parts donor fixed that...

Also, the vumeter needed to be replaced with the one from the parts donor machine, same for the tape counter, the rubber grommets used to mount the chassis on the cabinet, and the pinch roller too... incredibly, the rec/play sliding switch was working fine even without cleaning it.

After i got the chassis going, i moved on to the cosmetics... apart from the heavy nicotine stains, everything was still there and in excellent conditions, the only damaged part was the aliminium trim on the lid which got loose, bent and crudely put back in place with adhesive tape... i managed to straighten it out well but you can still see where it got bent.

Then i noticed that the thin brushed aluminium covers on the top reel panel and on the control panel were both partially unglued, and was impossible to glue them back as they were too long and their holes didn't fit on the screw posts correctly... apparently the plastic panels under the aluminium covers had shrunken a couple of millimeters with ageing

i finally had to carefully file them down to the correct lenght and enlarge the holes where the screw posts fit with a rat tail file, then glued them back in place and all was ok.

Now, almost 2 months later the 4308 works and looks like new (apart from the bent aluminium trim on the lid)... the heads show very little wear and they have an excellent HF response even at the lower 4,75 cm/s speed... i think it was definitely worth it...

Along with the recorder came a reel of Philips tape with early 70s pop hits on it... oh tweedle dee, oh tweedle dum!!!

dave walsh · 2nd Sep 2008, 1:24 am

Very nice job Jimmy. I would have thought one of these enviable but out of my range at the time. Dave W

ben · 2nd Sep 2008, 1:42 am

wow! that machine really looks like it's straight out the box! nice work.
these are solid machines, even if I found recordings on them disappointing.

I love listening to tapes found on old machines, especially spoken word stuff where you have to use your imagination , thinking of the original owners, as you can see here!

Jimmyhaflinger · 2nd Sep 2008, 2:39 pm

This particular machine is recording quite well for being a lo-fi mono portable... although by now i have only tried to record with the microphone, the tape that came with it (i'm quite sure it was recorded with the 4308) sounds quite pleasant even with the 4308's line output hooked to my stereo system.

Well, you don't need a lot of bandwidth and dynamic range to record early 70s pop hits anyway

2nd Sep 2008, 12:50 am	#1
Jimmyhaflinger Heptode Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: La Spezia, Italy Posts: 834	philips 4308 Hi, I have just finished the restoration of a 1971 Philips 4308 tape recorder, "made in holland" I got this recorder for 5 euros in a junkyard, it was really sorry looking but this is one of my favourite open reel machines, it was complete, and i had a 1974 parts donor 4308 that needed to be put to good use... the only parts that still worked were the motor and the speaker, the cabinet and the top surface of the chassis were filthy with nicotine and the sticky black remains of the belts, as soon as i hit the "stop" key, the aluminium trim plates flew away from the keys, the circular trim pieces on the reel tables also came loose when disturbed, the cabinet was quite easy to clean but the chassis proved to be a pain and it needed to be disassembled and washed with an aggressive degreaser to remove the yellow nicotine film and the black rubber mess that was also jamming some parts of the mechanism. The main belt was NLA so i replaced it with an O-ring, believe it or not this works just fine, luckily the rubber inserts in the reel clutches were made from a better, unusual pink coloured rubber and were still in excellent condition, while the ones made from the common black rubber are usually dissolving in a sticky mess... i finally reassembled the mechanism and moved on to the amplifier, the sound from the speaker output was feeble and distorted, as it turned out, the AC187 o/p stage driver transistor was bad, after replacing it, the sound came back clear and loud... well, too loud, at full blast, and the volume control had no effect... the volume pot's carbon track was o/c to ground, a replacement pot from the parts donor fixed that... Also, the vumeter needed to be replaced with the one from the parts donor machine, same for the tape counter, the rubber grommets used to mount the chassis on the cabinet, and the pinch roller too... incredibly, the rec/play sliding switch was working fine even without cleaning it. After i got the chassis going, i moved on to the cosmetics... apart from the heavy nicotine stains, everything was still there and in excellent conditions, the only damaged part was the aliminium trim on the lid which got loose, bent and crudely put back in place with adhesive tape... i managed to straighten it out well but you can still see where it got bent. Then i noticed that the thin brushed aluminium covers on the top reel panel and on the control panel were both partially unglued, and was impossible to glue them back as they were too long and their holes didn't fit on the screw posts correctly... apparently the plastic panels under the aluminium covers had shrunken a couple of millimeters with ageing i finally had to carefully file them down to the correct lenght and enlarge the holes where the screw posts fit with a rat tail file, then glued them back in place and all was ok. Now, almost 2 months later the 4308 works and looks like new (apart from the bent aluminium trim on the lid)... the heads show very little wear and they have an excellent HF response even at the lower 4,75 cm/s speed... i think it was definitely worth it... Along with the recorder came a reel of Philips tape with early 70s pop hits on it... oh tweedle dee, oh tweedle dum!!! Attached Thumbnails Last edited by Jimmyhaflinger; 2nd Sep 2008 at 1:20 am.

2nd Sep 2008, 1:24 am	#2
dave walsh Dekatron Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Ramsbottom (Nr Bury) Lancs or Bexhill (Nr Hastings) Sussex. Posts: 5,817	Re: philips 4308 Very nice job Jimmy. I would have thought one of these enviable but out of my range at the time. Dave W

2nd Sep 2008, 1:42 am	#3
ben Dekatron Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Madrid, Spain / Wirral, UK Posts: 7,498	Re: philips 4308 wow! that machine really looks like it's straight out the box! nice work. these are solid machines, even if I found recordings on them disappointing. I love listening to tapes found on old machines, especially spoken word stuff where you have to use your imagination , thinking of the original owners, as you can see here!

2nd Sep 2008, 2:39 pm	#4
Jimmyhaflinger Heptode Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: La Spezia, Italy Posts: 834	Re: philips 4308 This particular machine is recording quite well for being a lo-fi mono portable... although by now i have only tried to record with the microphone, the tape that came with it (i'm quite sure it was recorded with the 4308) sounds quite pleasant even with the 4308's line output hooked to my stereo system. Well, you don't need a lot of bandwidth and dynamic range to record early 70s pop hits anyway