Hello Tosh Got A Toshiba

[sp10mk11]

I hope we are allowed to tell happy tales on here.

I recently bought from ebay Toshiba PT-862D reel to reel.

I have owned Sony 366/377 and Akai 4000s and I wondered how this would compare to them.

I bid hard for it as it was described as serviced etc and won, I collected it as it was not far from me and all was good until I got it home

From looking at it it was clear it had not been serviced at all, thenheads/pinch roller, idler wheels, mechanism grease, switch etc had not been touched.

So I spent a few hours doing all that needed to be done, whilst negotiating a partial refund with the seller. The reason I chose this option is because the heads under the oxide are immaculate, and all the rubber parts are soft and pliable and not cracking, except for one brake pad which had gone hard.

Once all the work was done I set it up and stood back amazed how good it sounded at 3 3/4 and 7.5 ips, just like the 377 and 4000 do.

A good refund was agreed and that was icing on the cake for me.

The motor looks very much like the one Sony used as does the pinch roller infact the 377 one goes straight on.

It has a useful variable bias setting with a marker on the meters and a tape type switch Normal and Hi-FI, you also have S-O-S and echo switches

I have known Toshiba to have produced the odd bit of very good hi-fi in the 70s and this is very much an unsung hero from then

The one feature that I prefer over the 377/4000 is the function control.
the knob can be pushed in to select FF/REW which is very light and smooth to select, left out the knob will select play in either direction to stop it you just push the knob in, I nice bit of thinking there.

Here are some pictures taken from the auction and few I took to send to the seller showing parts that needed attention.

Two things I am a little uneasy about, firstly it uses permalloy heads, and it has a mixture of pressure pads (only on the erase and record head) and a variable back tension arm set up like the Sony 377 I might have a fiddle to see if I can get rid of the pressure pads

Gary

[Nickthedentist]

What a smart looking machine. Presumably quite rare... I've certainly never seen one.

N.

[DOFFERY]

An updated Sony, the motor is the same, as are many other parts as you will be aware.
I cannot see any reason for playing in "either" direction, apart from locating a previous passage without going to F/F Rwd?

Colin.

[Nickthedentist]

Were they actually made by Sony then, Colin?

[DOFFERY]

I don't know for certain Nick but do you remember the "Realistic" machines were cloned Teacs? Also back in the good old days I remember many Eastern European machines were clones of well known Western machines!

I still wonder why the machine in question had play in both directions, do you think my suggestion is feasible?

Colin.

[sp10mk11]

Hello Chaps

I thought to be a handsome item aswell, I did a bit of research on it before I went for it too make sure I wasn't just being seduced by its looks, I found a good demo of it on you tube and that along with the looks convinced me to go for it

Sorry maybe I didn't describe it well, when the selector is left in the out position you can only choose play from one of the two positions for play which means you can turn the selector either way to select play. Maybe they made an autoreverse version.
But with this sort of control it is handy as is the ff/rew function

Where as to select FF/REW you push the selector in and select FF or REW

Just out of interest aswell the idlers are very similar to the 377 etc Sony ones there 5 of them in total 3 for the FF/RE and two for the play these are on the back of the transport

It is full of Toshiba components plus the Sony lookalike ones, aswell as the retracting pinch roller

To me it is not uncommon to see similar parts in Japanese manufactured machines.

here is a close up of the control knob

Gary

[sp10mk11]

BINGO
Your comments about searching made me try some thing, with the machine in the right hand play position turn the knob to ff push it in and the machine stops playing and goes straight into ff and the same if you select the left hand play position turn to it push then the machine will go straight into rewind

Woo luxury

I like this more and more

[DOFFERY]

I appreciate your last sentence but it is the overall appearance to a certain Sony model that reminds of other clones,ie.the Russian version of the TK 40/41/46 series. etc.etc. etc.

Thanks for the clarification of the play mode.

Colin.

[sp10mk11]

Hello Colin

I have tried to find an instruction manual on the web but no joy yet it would have helped with this

Also I have never seen Sony TC or is it K 40/41/46 series machines

Gary

[DOFFERY]

The Sony TC 377 range, the Russian clone was for TK 40 (Grundig) range.

Colin.