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A Reel to Reel for £250: can it be done?

S

starbuck

pfm Member
Asking on behalf of a friend of a friend, I know nothing about R2R except that they look fantastic. Budget is about £250 max, is this a realistic amount for buying a s/hand but fully working reel to reel deck? Or should I advise them to keep saving?
 
Check local auction rooms etc:

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I paid about £20 for this initially filthy but otherwise beautiful condition Akai 4000DB. I only needed to replace the belts and pinch-roller to get it working fine, so another £50 or so in parts. I’m sure it could benefit further from recapping etc, but nothing is bulging or leaking and it works as-is.
 
Yes, perfectly possible but take care to find a fully functioning and serviced unit. Getting carried away without investigating the units history can be expensive in terms of repairs.

The really expensive bit is the software, unless he’s just interested in recording and playback of his own material.
 
Thanks for the replies and advice. I don't the guy who is looking to buy so am a bit in the dark as to specifics, to be honest, our mutual friend had asked me because he knew I was into turntables/music and thought I might be able to help. I had imagined that the purchase of a R2R machine would be far higher than £250, I may end up looking for myself!
 
Sony 377 or one of the various Akai 4000s will be around £100 plus for a working example. Lots of people ask silly prices because they think reel to reel is "collectable" Some are and some aren't.
If you go for the bigger machines like a Revox A77 or B77 then its at least £250 for the A7 and £600 for a B77
I have a 4000D and a Teac A3340s giving me speeds from 3.75 up to 15 ips. I would settle for a B77 to combine both but just can't find the right one.
 
I've got a Teac A-6300 I bought a while ago but didn't really use and is now in the spare room. The speed change button will sometimes stick but it was serviced when I bought it and plays tapes ok.

You can have that for £250 if you can collect from Southampton (also have bobbins and 4x nice ampex 406 tapes you can have included)

These are the ones:

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-5...0001&campid=5338728743&icep_item=152578583140
 
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Thanks but not looking to buy, was just wanting to know if it can be done and to pass on any pointers via the mutual friend.
 
Yes it can be done, I wll have a serviced tc-377 ready in a few weeks for less than that, these have better heads than the standard 4000 Akais etc.
 
I have owned and used a Sony TC377 and an AKAI 4000DS.
Both worked very well, but the Sony was easier to thread-up and operate.
Both can be had for around £150.
 
I have an Akai 1721 or similar that I have had for ever and a Brenall that came out of the BBC in Leeds. They are good fun but I don't use them. You can pick and choose amongst the lesser items (70s Japanese) for £250, even now. My Akai was about £20, 20 years ago.
 
Chris, it's not just what he may get for £250, but does he want 2 (half)track or 4 (quarter) track. From my memory with quite a few of the Sonys, Revoxes, Tandbergs et al, the cheaper ones were usually 4 track by default, but as you climb, choice of one or the other is needed. Very old ones (ferrograph etc.) tended to only be 2 track.

2 track uses twice the tape but has higher resolution generally and fewer drop-outs. I'm way out of touch (though I still hanker for those big Akais/Teacs/B77s etc), so may stand corrected here. I'd imagine that 4 track is what he's contemplating, though.
 
starbuck said:
Asking on behalf of a friend of a friend, I know nothing about R2R except that they look fantastic. Budget is about £250 max, is this a realistic amount for buying a s/hand but fully working reel to reel deck? Or should I advise them to keep saving?
Click to expand...
You used to be able to pick up old professional tape machines for nothing or close to from companies and institutions that had used them as work tools decades ago. They have no value as a tool today beyond very rare use for archives but even then most recordings have deteriorated greatly by now. They are expensive to maintain in working order and they take up space in the stores that could be better used for useful equipment. About 10 to 15 years my old institution got rid of 4 Nagras and a couple of Revox machines keeping only one of each I think just in case they were needed. There was some debate about whether even this was wise given the cost of maintaining them and the fact nobody had used them in years. I think they may have gone in a skip because of some rules that prevented stuff being sold. There was a huge old Telefunken 4 track from the 60s and a couple of EMT record players that I think went to a scrap man who then made a donation of some useable hardware. Whatever, if you know a place that used to make tape recordings as part of their work and is still around today it might be worth asking.
 
Many thanks for all those replies - hi, Mike, hope you're well! -, I'll pass on a summary to my friend when I next see him.
 
It can be done if you are lucky enough to find a fully working machine for that price...
Many of the older machines are now in dire need of servicing and if you can't/won't do this yourself it can get very expensive.
I sorted out a seemingly VGC Sony TC377 for a customer a couple of years back and although it looked very good it needed new belts (not an easy job) and had several electronic faults plus various tape operating mechanical faults such as wouldn't stay in play or fast forward without holding the control in place....
 
tell him 8-track is a more interesting way to go, with lots of available tapes! Wollensak is the brand to get.
 
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