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Vintage Tape (Audio), Cassette, Wire and Magnetic Disc Recorders and Players Open-reel tape recorders, cassette recorders, 8-track players etc. |
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12th Mar 2020, 1:04 pm | #1 |
Pentode
Join Date: Jan 2020
Location: Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, UK.
Posts: 141
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Civic 1950s reel to reel
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
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12th Mar 2020, 3:10 pm | #2 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2019
Location: Worthing, West Sussex, UK.
Posts: 6,603
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Re: Civic 1950s rrel to reel
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 ? |
12th Mar 2020, 3:12 pm | #3 |
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Oxford, UK
Posts: 27,947
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Re: Civic 1950s reel to reel
Post some photos. It's likely to use one of the standard decks of the period.
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12th Mar 2020, 8:29 pm | #4 |
Pentode
Join Date: Jan 2020
Location: Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, UK.
Posts: 141
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Re: Civic 1950s reel to reel
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.
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12th Mar 2020, 8:52 pm | #5 |
Pentode
Join Date: Jan 2020
Location: Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, UK.
Posts: 141
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Re: Civic 1950s reel to reel
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.
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12th Mar 2020, 9:03 pm | #6 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Cornwall, UK.
Posts: 13,454
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Re: Civic 1950s reel to reel
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12th Mar 2020, 9:06 pm | #7 |
Pentode
Join Date: Jan 2020
Location: Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, UK.
Posts: 141
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Re: Civic 1950s reel to reel
Thanks for the info Lawrence its much appreciated.
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6th Apr 2020, 4:17 pm | #8 |
Pentode
Join Date: Jan 2020
Location: Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, UK.
Posts: 141
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Civic 1950s reel to reel
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'?
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6th Apr 2020, 6:28 pm | #9 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2019
Location: Worthing, West Sussex, UK.
Posts: 6,603
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Re: Civic 1950s reel to reel
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. |
6th Apr 2020, 7:04 pm | #10 |
Pentode
Join Date: Jan 2020
Location: Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, UK.
Posts: 141
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Re: Civic 1950s reel to reel
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.
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6th Apr 2020, 7:59 pm | #11 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Kington, Herefordshire, UK.
Posts: 3,670
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Re: Civic 1950s reel to reel
Fortunately, live chassis tape recorders are rare - only the Gelosos come readily to mind.
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6th Apr 2020, 8:03 pm | #12 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2019
Location: Worthing, West Sussex, UK.
Posts: 6,603
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Re: Civic 1950s reel to reel
Yes just wanted to raise the subject just in case.
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6th Apr 2020, 8:21 pm | #13 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2019
Location: Worthing, West Sussex, UK.
Posts: 6,603
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Re: Civic 1950s reel to reel
Quote:
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. Last edited by DMcMahon; 6th Apr 2020 at 8:35 pm. |
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6th Apr 2020, 9:00 pm | #14 |
Pentode
Join Date: Jan 2020
Location: Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, UK.
Posts: 141
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Re: Civic 1950s reel to reel
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.
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6th Apr 2020, 9:01 pm | #15 |
Pentode
Join Date: Jan 2020
Location: Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, UK.
Posts: 141
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Re: Civic 1950s reel to reel
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6th Apr 2020, 9:05 pm | #16 |
Heptode
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Accrington, Lancashire, UK.
Posts: 978
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Re: Civic 1950s reel to reel
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.
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6th Apr 2020, 10:00 pm | #17 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Madrid, Spain / Wirral, UK
Posts: 7,498
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Re: Civic 1950s reel to reel
Quote:
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!
__________________
Regards, Ben. |
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7th Apr 2020, 4:07 pm | #18 |
Pentode
Join Date: Jan 2020
Location: Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, UK.
Posts: 141
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Re: Civic 1950s reel to reel
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10th May 2020, 12:23 pm | #19 |
Pentode
Join Date: May 2019
Location: Galway, Republic of Ireland.
Posts: 208
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Re: Civic 1950s reel to reel
Re instructions, ............if I can find mine.... will pm and email
TT |
10th May 2020, 12:39 pm | #20 | |
Pentode
Join Date: May 2019
Location: Galway, Republic of Ireland.
Posts: 208
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Re: Civic 1950s reel to reel
Quote:
TT |
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