Thanks for the info, yeah the motor turns and the tape winds under the motor so im guessing its not a power issue. Next time im back at my parents (where the machine is) i'll check out the pots with my MultiMeater. Its so heavy I wonder if it has valves in it, perhaps they would need replacing. I havent lifted the top yet so I dont know whats inside.
I also have one of these :
It has a variable speed pot that can do some nice pitch shifting. It also has 2 speakers inside that can be used for playback or monitoring the input signal. When its turned up loud the case gets this wonderfull resonance like in Boc's ATP Live set track 1. Its ashame its only mono
Good luck with the repairs man. (I recommend putting on some good tunes and making an afternoon of it!)
Love that tape deck...too bad about the mono though, as you said. Still, fantastic bit of kit.
I was looking at some old photos of our house before it was redecorated about 12 years ago. In the background of one of the photos is an old Akai Reel To Reel and our old Marrantz Tape Deck! Apparently they were definitely not thrown away so must still be somewhere in our attic!
I feel a bit of attic exploring coming on
anybody got any ideas on what I could do with these in terms of degrading/destroying/saturating sounds?
if you are reading this you are spending too much time at your computer. go outside and get some fresh air.
sometimes, when i descend a concrete staircase
...and that's not a metaphor...
the rhythm of my staircase decension
sounds awfully similar to the rhythm of a water bottle replacing air with water
as a thirsty perch chugs his volume of water
and i beg to record it
/manipulate it/destroy it
but laziness overwhelms me
and i write here in poem style still
cause practicality means nothing to me
as the sky turns 53 versions of sapphire this morning
and everyone sends zzz's my way
but i stay up awake anyway
popping those bubbles
waiting for sunlight
cause she's so
beautiful to
me too
So, last night I ripped apart one of my old tape decks from like 1991, and rewired a potentiometer and some resistors into one of the power cords controlling the drive motor. It is a lot of fun to play with now. I'm thinking about doing some other mild hacks.
Hmm... what if I hack my old dual unit by actually unwinding a tape, and running 2 decks, of one tape, so the tape is playing through both heads at the same time.
And I like your idea of making the motor go backwards, hmm...
I got some other good ideas, such as removing the pressure guards leaving only the tape head in place. It will create a lot more flutter. Also, removing a few perfectly good tape heads, and mounting them parallel in something face up. Then proceed to make a bow (like a horsehair violin bow) from the magnetic tape, and swipe across tape head.
I just bought one of these bad boys for £14 second hand.
It needs a bit of cair and attention but everything seems working (for the most part).
It uses Valves for the amps, and has a in built speaker. This thing has been neglected for a good few years I think and it sometimes distorts what I put threw it in a realy nice way, like level/pitch fluctiations.
I cant wait to start restoring this thing. I should be able to make some giant tape loops Beatles style if I connect it with my Akaii4000D.
