2. vintage
  3. 162080-141093

Advice Regarding Reel-to-Reel

I went to a neighbor’s home to look at some records they were selling.  While I was there, the husband tried to interest me in buying his Teac a-6300 deck.  He said he bought it new in the 1970’s while stationed in Europe, as his music options were limited.  He doesn’t use it anymore and they are trying to reduce clutter.  He asked for $300.

I said I would get back with him.  Looking on-line, I see much higher prices for those decks.  They are described as semi-professional decks with good capabilities. I also read that such an old deck should be gone over by a qualified tech to be lubricated, have belts replaced and have the electronics checked for possible replacement.  This work could easily come to $500 or more, and that is if I can locate a person with the knowledge and equipment to do a quality job while hopefully avoiding shipping it.

I told the people I would pass on their deck, but I keep reading and thinking about it.  The price is good, but the expense and hassle of restoration, and not knowing how much I might use it (playing mostly records, CD’s and radio now), give me pause.  It does look really cool though with those 10.5 inch reels!  And if I needed to sell it on for a profit, that might not be too difficult?   And thoughts?
bob540
oldhvymec
5,101 posts
 
lalitk2,243 posts

Like I said I have 20 - 30 that are pretty good. I didn't just start, it was maybe 35 years ago.  I changed to new formats, cassette, and the early CD. I sold a lot of the tapes I had, BUT kept the vinyl.

20 years ago I stored everything. KIDS, were getting into Dads, stereo..
(early teens). My RtR, tapes and vinyl ALL went into storage.. All the Mac gear, my TT, RtR, phono pres, Tube crossovers, EVERYTHING....

I set the kids up with Adcoms,  Sony ES SACD,  Server,  Mac C22
and a pair of VMPS Tower II SEs. BOOM BOOM in the room room..

Kids left I retired, I go to look for my stuff, it been nicked, oh yes. ALL my Mac gear. TT, (my friggin' fairchild 750), RtRs, and a footlocker FULL of vintage valves, just packed. The hand made tube XO, My C20s a pair of seq SN MC240, la te da....  I'm floored. I call the insurance man, guess what I have replacement insurance, no idea what it was. I just wanted my gear back.. They paid me 56K for the gear. I came out ok...BUT I had to replace it or loose up to 90% of the value.

You got it, I made them and (I helped), find every piece I wanted, and even did some bidding for me...

I'm just now at a point, two more pieces of Equipment, a special phonostage/tape preamp and a SUT (not the biggest fan).

Clear a room and the transition begins, just took 37 years. All set up though, for good RtR and TT use and PARTY a bit...without foul....

Built in bass traps, a few things 2 ft x 3ft x 16 foot foundation for EQ foundation.. It don't move at ALL... Traps can vary easy, slide the traps open or closed...

All that to say, it was all part of the plan, 37 years ago when I built the room, RtR, TT, and anything else I like.. or dislike for that matter..

Retirement is FUN, don't let anyone say otherwise....

Fun Fun  Fun Fun, better than eatin' bugs... Yup...

Regards
afunk's avatar
afunk
2 posts
 
Hi,

If your looking for service / restoration I'd be glad to help! I've been servicing these since 1980. We're located in Brooklyn NY USA.

-Andrew

800.404.5520
Funktionaltech.com
bob540 OP
415 posts
 
Hi Andrew, thanks for your offer.  I didn’t buy the rig, as I was more concerned about the cost of getting decent tapes now than about finding someone to service the deck.  I likely wouldn’t invest in R2R unless that format were to have a resurgence like LP’s did, or if I suddenly came into so much money I don’t know what to do with it. I doubt that is going to happen.  I do have fond memories of my old Sony deck from the 70’s, but those days are long gone. 
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dbphd
1,631 posts
 
IIRC tape has foibles like print through and the need for carefully aligned heads. We used to make reference speech intelligibility tapes using 1/2" tape at 15 IPS with Ampex 350s. Getting a clean recording took a lot of care. You never fast forwarded or rewound anything, because it could compact the tape. As a post-doc I got reamed by a tech for casually releasing the cover on heads that had he had previously been carefully aligned. But that was in the 1960s.
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