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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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Old 23rd Sep 2018, 11:38 am   #41
paulsherwin
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Default Re: "Basic" R2R Tape Recorders

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Originally Posted by crackle View Post
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I had a KB TD2 based recorder in the mid / late 60s,
Hi Paul was that the KB RT20/2
I don't think that was it - I don't remember it having tape storage compartments like that - but it's a long time ago now and memories are a bit hazy.
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Old 23rd Sep 2018, 12:30 pm   #42
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Default Re: "Basic" R2R Tape Recorders

No offence to BSR intended! The TD2 deck did mean that tape recording entered the domain of the home enthusiast as an entry level machine, and many weird and wonderful names found their way into the department stores and furniture showrooms. I remember lusting after a Fidelity Braemar in the local Currys when I was at primary school though £19-19/6 was way beyond my wildest dreams. Then one Christmas along came a parcel - and in it was a Grundig TK124. So much better in every respect, and it must have meant something of a sacrifice for my parents as it was double the price. However, it certainly didn't get locked in a cupboard and started my interest in recording.
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Old 27th Sep 2018, 8:08 pm   #43
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Default Re: "Basic" R2R Tape Recorders

Wasn't the TK124 like other single speed Grundig's like the earlier almost ubiquitous TK14 actually made in Britain?
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Old 27th Sep 2018, 11:15 pm   #44
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Default Re: "Basic" R2R Tape Recorders

Grundig used a shamrock logo for products made in the Belfast factory opened in 1960.
The tragic events and eventual closure of the plant are well documented.
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Old 28th Sep 2018, 8:22 am   #45
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Default Re: "Basic" R2R Tape Recorders

Julie's comments are spot on. I had an old Walter 303 to play with as a toy; I recorded my friend's voices, my first attempts at comedy, and saved songs I liked from the radio. Sounds were recognisable for what they were, that's all that mattered. Had the machine been better, I doubt that it would have been left in the hands of an eight-year-old!
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Old 28th Sep 2018, 10:47 am   #46
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Default Re: "Basic" R2R Tape Recorders

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Wasn't the TK124 like other single speed Grundig's like the earlier almost ubiquitous TK14 actually made in Britain?
Before Britain joined the EEC, as it was then, both Philips and Grundig products would have been subject to import tariffs. Although Philips had a manufacturing plant in England, it only made TVs, because of our 405-line standard so initial deliveries of all non TV products were clearly marked 'Made in Holland' and Grundig tape recorders were marked 'Made in West Germany'.

As production ramped up, Philips products were 'Made in Austria' and Grundig tape recorders were 'Made in Ireland'. The reason for this is that both we and Austria were members of EFTA (the European Free Trade Area), which, basically, encircled the 6 nations that comprised the EEC apart, of course, for the Eastern Bloc.

In 1960 it comprised Austria, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Over time, other countries joined EFTA whilst some, like the UK, left to join the EEC.

It is currently comprised of only four countries: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
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Old 3rd Oct 2018, 4:16 pm   #47
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Default Re: "Basic" R2R Tape Recorders

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One of the first reel-to-reel machines I had as a schoolboy was a ‘Walter’ that someone must have been throwing out and I somehow acquired...
This seems to be a common theme with Walters! As a schoolboy I was given a top-of-the-range '505' which was OK electronically but big, heavy and clapped-out mechanically. I soon scrapped it but I kept the circuit diagram which was pasted inside the cabinet, just in case a good model 505 ever turned up in the future. So far, it hasn't...
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Old 3rd Oct 2018, 4:28 pm   #48
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Default Re: "Basic" R2R Tape Recorders

My brother sold a few of my basic machines with the TD2 deck last year. The only one that didn't go was a sort of "home brew" R to R produced by some outfit in Shipley Yorks. Still got it now but I had thought that would be the one to capture the interest-you never know .

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Old 9th Oct 2018, 8:10 am   #49
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I mentioned having a very basic R2R tape recorder when I was a very young boy earlier on in this thread. It just so happened that at the Audiojumble there was a similar type of recorder on the BVWS stand. I don't think it is the exact same model as I had but the design and operation is the same, and the quality still has that rather wavering tone to it, that you would expect for something with no flywheel or capstan.

Never the less it has been kept remarkably well considering it must be from the early 60's, it all worked first time, and even the crystal microphone and little earpiece still work.

You can see better pictures as well as the instructions in the Radio Museum. https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/unknow...r_rsr_321.html

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Old 9th Oct 2018, 11:11 am   #50
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... even the crystal microphone and little earpiece still work.
That earphone doesn't look big enough for one of those crystal earphones, Mike, it looks more like the an early magnetic one.

Also, a dynamic microphone would make more sense for matching to the low input impedance of a transistor amplifier.

Try putting a meter across both and see what resistance you can measure. If you are right, they should both measure infinity.
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Old 9th Oct 2018, 11:18 am   #51
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Default Re: "Basic" R2R Tape Recorders

I agree about the earpiece, almost certainly a magnetic type. But I reckon the mic is crystal. That type were ubiquitous in the 60's and all mine were crystal.
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Old 9th Oct 2018, 11:54 am   #52
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Default Re: "Basic" R2R Tape Recorders

Yes I agree, I didn't intend to say the earpiece was crystal, I assumed it was magnetic also.

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Old 13th Oct 2018, 8:49 am   #53
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Default Re: "Basic" R2R Tape Recorders

Back in 1957 apparently may father had a Walters recorder bought for him by my mother. He recorded my first words on this machine until stupidly he lent it to a friend and asked him not to record on the other side of the tape! You can guess the rest. He had this till early 60’s. He had little regard for it. I can remember plenty of TD2 based machines until he bought a second hand Simon TD4. This was a far cry from the Walter. I can still hear this machines auto reverse mechanism. It was a lovely thing and I desperately want one!
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Old 13th Oct 2018, 9:21 am   #54
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Default Re: "Basic" R2R Tape Recorders

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I can remember plenty of TD2 based machines until he bought a second hand Simon TD4.
Sorry it was a Simon SP4!
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Old 13th Oct 2018, 9:50 am   #55
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Default Re: "Basic" R2R Tape Recorders

They have turned up from time to time on auction sites. Built like the proverbial tank, but perhaps building a deck of that sophistication didn't pay - the SP5 used a less-than-wonderful EMI deck, and faded away.
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Old 15th Oct 2018, 10:47 am   #56
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Default Re: "Basic" R2R Tape Recorders

I have just come across an advertisment for Walter Instruments Limited in the 1955 Newnes Radio and Television Reference Book.

They appear to offer pretty much any tape recorder or part that you specify - "Electronic Engineering to the Trade".

They were in Garth Road, Lower Morden which is still most factory units, also the site of my local council refuse tip.
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Old 15th Oct 2018, 10:55 am   #57
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Could have saved everybody a lot of trouble by taking them straight to the tip
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Old 15th Oct 2018, 11:28 am   #58
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Default Re: "Basic" R2R Tape Recorders

Back in the 60s I had two basic recorders similar to those shown in post # 49. Both were scrapped long ago, but, IIRC, those earpieces were Crystal types. The Microphones certainly were. Somewhere among my electronic clutter I still have the amplifier PCB from one of those recorders.
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Old 17th Oct 2018, 10:31 am   #59
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Default Re: "Basic" R2R Tape Recorders

Re Barrymagrec's comment on Walters (56), we need to remember that they were radio component makers since 1924 who contract built the first British-made taperecorder, the Thermionic Products/Brush Soundmirror, and much of the Recordon. Their own budget models from 1954 are loosely based on the Soundmirror. They worked... and introduced many to tape-recording.

Walters proudly advertised they had been assembling taperecorders since 1947 - far longer than the upstarts who followed! But their Metropolitan portable of 1960/1 truly was awful and they closed in 1961... but while their phoenix-like service department would continue to service older models, they wouldn't touch the new Metropolitan with a barge-pole!
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