Trash or Treasure?

[stringrazor]

This old tape machine was left in my garage. I have no idea if it works or not and am trying to decide if it should go to the electronics discard pile at the town recycle center or on ebay.



larger images:
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/ ... g_7208.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e273/ ... g_7209.jpg

BTW, new member here. I'm a guitarist, play live, record at home using Sonar 6, started with TASCAM 144 then Fostex A8 (still have 'em).

[A.David.MacKinnon]

at the very least try plugging your guitar into it. These things can make great little tube amps.

[???????]

don't throw it away without looting it for its tubes first.

[vibesof20hz]

Little treasures like this are great if your into electronics. Even if you dont know anything about electronics, get a book from radioshack and see what you can change or modify. Just take it apart and see how it works. I cant speak for you, but things like that seems like an afternoon of good fun to me.

[nopenopenope]

Little treasures like this are great if your into electronics. Even if you dont know anything about electronics, get a book from radioshack and see what you can change or modify. Just take it apart and see how it works. I cant speak for you, but things like that seems like an afternoon of good fun to me.

I agree. Besides, those don't go for too much on eBay. Don't get me wrong, cash is cash... but play around with it. maybe even find some reels for it. maybe it has a head for monitoring? you could perhaps make a loop in the tape and just use it's tubes and tape saturation to warm up your guitar for studio or live even.

or just loot it's tubes and then smash it with a bat. whatever works.

[tablebeast]

Yeah, it might make a neat little guitar rig. It looks like you have a tape machine and a second power amp for stereo playback. Both units would take little to get running and could actually be great little guitar amps. How much do you know about modifying gear? If you're handy with stuff I'd say for bare minimum open it up and remove the tape reel motor power (this will quiet up the whole rig physically and electronically). Next replace the 2 prong (most likely) power cables with proper three prong grounded cables (this is more for safety than anything). Finally if it doesn't have quarter inch I/O jacks, replace what is there with them. That should get you started, though there is likely a LOT more you can do with it. Of course you could always use it as a tape deck! You could use it for overdub recording if you're good at importing tracks into your DAW and lining them up manually with the rest (you'd have to do two passes, one to tape, then one to DAW, then line up). Don't bother with ebay, its not a collectible model so you'd be looking at $30 to $50 at the most for it, with probably as much spent on shipping!

Jesse