Unknown tape deck

[2ndtimearound]

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum having recently got back into vintage tape recorders & hifi. I went to collect a Ferrograph deck I'd bought today & ended up coming away with another unknown deck. The only identification I can find on it are the motors which are British Thompson Houston. Can anyone identify it for me?
Thanks,
Steve

[ms660]

Don't know the model but the tape deck is almost certainly a relative of the deck in this:

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/...rch=%223035%22

I also found mention of an HMV 3031, 3032, 3033 and 3024, found a pic of the 3031 but there's no cut out for the magic eye, I think I saw the 3034 as a large console, haven't found a pic of a 3032 or 3033 yet....might be one of them.

EDIT: 3031 pic/drawing/sketch:

http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/hismasters_3031.html

Lawrence.

[Ted Kendall]

Don't know the exact model but it's definitely the EMI deck with the clockwise take up turntable and the flutter. The magic eye inclines me to think it might be the first incarnation, which they called the Emicorda, if memory serves.

[2ndtimearound]

Thanks for the info guys. It is actually in an HMV cabinet which I had assumed wasn't the original as I wasn't aware that HMV made tape recorders but maybe the case is original.
Regards,
Steve

[ParcGwyn]

This looks a bit odd to me, maybe I am missing something, but the tape looks like it will be wound onto the takeup spool with the coating side out.

Dave

GW7ONS

[Ted Kendall]

No, you aren't missing anything, that is the way it was designed. Philips did something similar with their first domestic machine. When tape was recorded in one direction only, it didn't matter much - EMI used the same basic deck until they stopped making tape machines with the TR52/RE301.

[ms660]

Yes it was commented on with a bit of a sarcy comment but little did he know!!...Audio magazine, Oct. 1954, magazine page 14:

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/...o-1954-Oct.pdf

Lawrence.

[dseymo1]

Originally Posted by Ted Kendall

Don't know the exact model but it's definitely the EMI deck with the clockwise take up turntable and the flutter. The magic eye inclines me to think it might be the first incarnation, which they called the Emicorda, if memory serves.

If further confirmation were needed, those heavy-duty bolt-through cast alloy knobs are a giveaway. They were needed to shift the mechanism of some EMI decks, too!
By the way, you seem to have a twist in the tape; the reverse-wrap means you can't take an already loaded pair of spools from an existing machine and transfer them, you have to load the takeup spool from scratch!

[Ted Kendall]

The twist is to make the clockwise take-up reel wind oxide-in - at some time there was a pulley fitted on the boss between the reels to facilitate this - note the lines indicating the tape path. Still a cock-eyed design, though...

[dseymo1]

Ah, I see!
The EMIs I've owned were full-track, so it didn't matter.

[Ted Kendall]

Originally Posted by ms660

Yes it was commented on with a bit of a sarcy comment but little did he know!!...

Funnily enough, the man who wrote the piece, Richard Arbib, before he developed multicore solder, was sales manager for HMV, and the only incumbent up to that time to have resigned rather than be sacked!

[Nickthedentist]

Yes, and there's a pic of him and a few pages of background in Gilbert Briggs' Audio Biographies book.