Civic 1950s reel to reel

[Trevor Leese]

Hi everyone, ive been asked to look at a Civic reel to reel tape deck, ive fully cleaned the whole unit inside and out and got it working well again, except for one issue , when in fast forward and reverse and I apply the stop button the ribbon that stops the reel table does stop the table, it works but not enough tension to stop it, what can be done? Thanks in anticipation. Trev

[DMcMahon]

I do not know the Civic at all and difficult to find much on them, a couple of posts suggest they might use a Collaro chassis.

What is the ribbon you reference ? does it have any braking mechanisms ?

[paulsherwin]

Post some photos. It's likely to use one of the standard decks of the period.

[Trevor Leese]

Hi all and thanks for the replies. I have attached 2 photos 1 of the ribbon and 1 of the stop mechanism. In the 1st photo it shows the ribbon at the reel table block, the 2nd photo shows you the counter belt pulley, situated below this is the stop bar mechanism, attached to the stop mechanism are 2 wings of metal, the ribbons are attached to these and when FWD is pressed and then the stop bar is pressed the ribbons move forward to grip the reel table and stop it but it doesn't stop it.

[Trevor Leese]

Hi all, here is a photo of the whole underside of the deck, the reel motors to the left and right each have the ribbon at the bottom of the table, you can see the stop mechanism in the centre of the photo.

[ms660]

Collaro "Studio" tape deck...?

https://www.service-data.com/product...17/1200/t10817

Lawrence.

[Trevor Leese]

Thanks for the info Lawrence its much appreciated.

[Trevor Leese]

Hi everyone, i have just repaired and serviced a 1950s Civic reel to reel tape deck for a customer, the deck has a built in amplifier and a selector switch to switch from play to amp and then record , on the side of the unit it has 2 RCA sockets marked Gramophone and Mic and my customer wants to use these sockets to plug an electric guitar into through the amp section of the tape deck, my question 'is this possible'?

[DMcMahon]

Hello Trevor,

Very important to make sure that this R2R has a 3 core mains cable and the safety earth is correctly terminated at both ends. Sadly occasionally you do hear of musicians having fatal accidents with incorrectly earthed equipment.

I am assuming here, that it has a mains transformer, i.e. not a live chassis design where one side of the mains input connects direct to the chassis.

[Trevor Leese]

Hi Dave and thank you for your message, the deck is 3 core cable and it does have a transformer, when you say 'correctly terminated at both ends' you mean at the start point and at the mains plug.

[Ted Kendall]

Fortunately, live chassis tape recorders are rare - only the Gelosos come readily to mind.

[DMcMahon]

Yes just wanted to raise the subject just in case.

[DMcMahon]

Originally Posted by Trevor Leese

Hi Dave and thank you for your message, the deck is 3 core cable and it does have a transformer, when you say 'correctly terminated at both ends' you mean at the start point and at the mains plug.

That is good, yes the earth cable connected at the mains plug and at the other end to the deck metalwork.

I am not familiar with Civic or the Collaro etc base R2R deck it may utilise and know nothing about guitar pickups, but would say that it should be quite possible to use the Civic as a guitar amp. There are quite a few web video clips of people using R2R amps as guitar amps.

The fact that it has an AMP setting I think means the amplifier will be powered without the motor circuitry also being powered. How the phono input signal gets to the amplifier in the AMP setting I do not know, i.e. whether it goes via the volume control, record level control, Monitor (if it has that facility) etc.

Were you able to find any User instructions or schematic, this would help to know how to set it up in the AMP setting.

Evidently guitar pickups can range from various low to high outputs but I would guess that the Microphone phono/RCA may be too sensitive, it is just a case of trying and experimenting to see what gives acceptable results.

A critical musical ear may want more bass or tremble than the Civic amp provides normally, so some people might modify the circuitry a little to suit.

Depending upon the impedance matching and the sensitivity of the phono input verses the pickup output, for some styles of guitar playing (like Rock) the Civic amp if not driven hard may not provide the distortion that guitar players like/may want out of valve amplifiers.

[Trevor Leese]

Thanks to Dave for the very informative answer to my question, unfortunately i have not been able to find any instructions or schematics for the deck.

[Trevor Leese]

Originally Posted by Ted Kendall

Fortunately, live chassis tape recorders are rare - only the Gelosos come readily to mind.

Thanks Ted, nice to know and thanks for the input its much appreciated mate.

[toshiba tony]

How did these half mains machines achieve isolation on the microphone, transformer or capacitor? Later on, of course, we had opto-couplers but in those days not.

[ben]

Originally Posted by toshiba tony

How did these half mains machines achieve isolation on the microphone, transformer or capacitor?.

Simple answer: they didn't

The sole socket was, IIRC, a mic input, recessed, and the supplied mic was well-insulated!
A totally ridiculous cost cutting design and a real risk, as many people sooner or later would want to try and make a direct connection to a sound source for better audio quality. As a nipper I did this, cheating death, trying to add more speakers to U series valve amplifiers in old record players!

[Trevor Leese]

Originally Posted by toshiba tony

How did these half mains machines achieve isolation on the microphone, transformer or capacitor? Later on, of course, we had opto-couplers but in those days not.

Can't hep you on that one Tony, sorry bud but thanks for the input.

[hillmanie]

Re instructions, ............if I can find mine.... will pm and email
TT

[hillmanie]

Originally Posted by ms660

Collaro "Studio" tape deck...?

https://www.service-data.com/product...17/1200/t10817

Lawrence.

Quite correct as you know. I have same machine. For some forgotten reason I thought there was adjustment on those belts to compensate for stretch but then it may be too much tea late at night. You might investigate cutting out the old stuff and finding a modern replacement material?
TT