A dilemma of a tape recorder hobbyist

To save the electrolytic problem, modern film caps are as good capacity vs. volume wise than older electrolytics.

[suebutcher]

In my limited experience, electrolytics don't need regular use, just good storage, except smoothing capacitors in high-voltage supplies, which can be destroyed by high leakage currents before they have time to re-form.

[Gulliver]

Originally Posted by Welsh Anorak

Hi
That's a good point - how much more plentiful is, say, an MGB than a base model Cortina of the same era, though they were outsold many times.

Glyn

My dad wrote an article in early 2008 about how there were actually more three-wheeled Morgans on the road than Mk 4 and Mk5 Cortinas combined - despite the road being full of those Cortinas for most of the 80's.

The survival rates can be put down to a number of aspects. The Cortinas might well not have been engineered to last as long as the Morgans. Owners of 3-wheeled morgans are likely to be skilled at maintaining them. At 15 years of age a 3-wheeled Morgan was seen as cheap transport for a student, at 25 it was already seen as a 'classic'. Whereas at 15 years a Cortina was generally seen as fit for banger racing - which is where a heck of a lot of them ended up.

With Elizabethan RTRs or Fidelity, Alba - any number of lower end brands. They are less likely to have been treated well than a Revox, Ferrograph or Tandberg. The lesser makes are more likely to have been hammered in use, like the Cortina pedal to the metal up the M1 for hours on end.

Which is now a shame because there are bound to be people who would cherish an Elizabethan or Alba RTR from the 60's.

Oddly enough of all the cars my dad owned in his 50+ years of driving, the two he really loved were the 3-wheel Morgan and the Mk5 Cortina. He once literally threw a Morris 1100 back at the garage saying it was so terrible he didn't even want to sell it back. He drove the Morgan in preference to a Vectra...even in the rain and snow - which I assume says plenty about the driveability of a Vectra.

[suebutcher]

Fortunately, tape recorders are a lot smaller and easier to store than cars, and are more likely to turn up if word ever gets out that such-and-such model is rare. Televisions and radiograms are in more danger, I'd say.

[Welsh Anorak]

Hi
Very true - you'd pay many more times for a basket-case dual standard colour TV than a mint Revox A77!
Glyn

[GW6WEUKeith]

As an aside to this string I was reminded that back in 1978 I visited the Tandberg factory, a fascinating place and very Scandinavian. It was a very 'wooden' place; by that I mean everywhere seemed to be wooden boarded. The food in the restaurant was superb. The machines etc were not mass produced, they were assembled by groups of workers in their own area with rest area attached and refreshment dispensers. Very different to what I was used to in UK. Wonder if it survives today?

[Paul_RK]

Originally Posted by Gulliver

With Elizabethan RTRs or Fidelity, Alba - any number of lower end brands. They are less likely to have been treated well than a Revox, Ferrograph or Tandberg. The lesser makes are more likely to have been hammered in use, like the Cortina pedal to the metal up the M1 for hours on end.

Which is now a shame because there are bound to be people who would cherish an Elizabethan or Alba RTR from the 60's.

It's a moot point, how scarce such things may be. Semi-professional tape recorders will almost always have seen hundreds or thousands of hours of use. Many low-end domestic models, on the other hand, will have been bought during the boom in popularity of home recording in the '50s and '60s and my guess would be that quite a proportion will have been tucked away in cupboards after an initial brief spell of enthusiasm for taping the family's voices and/or a few radio shows. I've a Dansette Consort which turned up at the local auction room giving every sign of having been one such, as to the best of my recollection (it's currently hiding in the depths of the front room...) it appears to have seen very little use at all before being retired.

Paul

[ricard]

Originally Posted by Paul_RK

Semi-professional tape recorders will almost always have seen hundreds or thousands of hours of use. Many low-end domestic models, on the other hand, will have been bought during the boom in popularity of home recording in the '50s and '60s and my guess would be that quite a proportion will have been tucked away in cupboards after an initial brief spell of enthusiasm for taping the family's voices and/or a few radio shows.

Then again there will also be upmarket recorders that were purchased by an initially over-enthusiastic owner with too much money on his hands but then put away after a couple of hours of use. Rare, true, but would probably have been taken care of fairly well even though not used because of its purchase price, whether the run-of-the mill recorders would tend to end up shoved up against a damp wall in a basement after a while.

[Welsh Anorak]

Hi
A lot of semi-pro machines didn't see much use as they were bought by studios who occasionally needed to check a tape or by teaching facilities. It's usually easy to tell the difference! It's not unusual to find a mint Revox or Tandberg for sale, and the hammered machines tend to depress the value, so there are bargains to be had.
The real timewarp factor comes into its own with the domestic machine, though, when it was carefully boxed and put away in a nice warm room when almost new - hopefully with some tapes of the period.
Glyn