Ang: Re: [sdiy] cheap and decent reel to reel recommendations?

[Daniel Araya]

>>> "Rude 66" <r.lekx at chello.nl> 2003-09-11 12:01:26 >>>

>what i'd do is pay more attention to the general state of a machine
than a
>specific brand. yes, it's nice to find an old studer, but they need
>servicing, calibraton, etc which can be quite expensive. for instance
i have
>an old revox g36 i got for free, it weighs a ton and is full of tubes,
but
>it needs to be fixed and calivbrated. something like an a or b77 can
run
>forever, but be aware of worn tape heads.
>
>if you don't need it for master recording or anything, then go with
the
>cheap consumer reel to reels.. especially if it's for modification
and
>experimenting. then when something goes wrong, you just buy another
>cheapo...
>
>r./
>
>(who'd love to have a studer a-80 in his living room.;-)


You have a point there, you can find some great deals at fleamarkets
and electronics recyceling places. I got one of my best sounding
machines, a tube Grundig TK5 mono reel to reel from a fleamarket for
about 1$!

I have a few reel to reels, both studer, revox, nagra, tandberg,
grundig and others and i know that certain parts for some machines are
pretty hard to come by. 
In the case of Studer/Revox it is pretty easy though, one can quite
often get all the manuals, service documents, calibration tapes and
spare parts from different sources, many on the net.

...I work in the broadcast industry so I have access to many different
machines and have lots of old techs to ask if something breaks or if I
need some spare parts so maybe I should shut up now... :)

/d