audio-talk

Anyone any idea where to get reel to reel tape boxes in the uk for reasonable money?

Ive looked all over the web and there appears to be some availability in the us for archival boxes there but the wrong side of bugger all in the uk, and im not paying 20 plus dollars plus import duty for a blummin cardboard box....

The only uk based place i can find charges nearly a tenner for one box with vat and postage which is a bit much for a box

Improvise, fettle! Think about it Ant. I'm sure you'll come up with an elegant solution.

Would the tapes fit in a sweet tin ?

If so,
1) Buy a tin of sweets.

2) Eat sweets.

3) Line tin (if metal) with card.

4) Put tapes in tin.(with some desiccant ?)

5) Put lid on.

You could have another product line there: bespoke, polished hardwood tape boxes, with inlaid lettering, felt insides and jewellery box fastenings.

these are identical to the ones I used.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seven-BASF-R ... 4281008271

I had about 20 IIRC, but I don't recall what happened to them. I have to go into the small attic to fix a leaky ball valve at some time in the next week so I'll have a look in my treasure boxes. Don't hold your breath though cos it's unlikely I'll have kept more than one or two with band practise recordings.

from the ebay link it would seem they do come up from time to time though....

I dont have any treasure boxes in my attic, i have a load of old crap

Just keep an eye out on eBay Ant, I got 20 10” used boxed reels with tape for I think it was 30 quid. The tape was junk but the reels were in fine fettle and all in their original boxes. Was a few years ago mind, I guess prices had risen since it’s become more fashionable.

Yep ill just keep an eye out on ebay for ones worth having

As an aside, i hooked the machine up using the long cables i bought.
I bought a joblot of cables that were from an install done in someones house by cornflake, and the cables were branded as cornflake.co.uk by klotz. Which is understandable as they would make up their own cable runs so they are concealed in walls/trunking, whatever. Turns out that cornflake is a 40 year old hifi shop in london that has moved into home installs as well as still selling hifi from its little london premises.
And the cable is klotz ac110 lo cap stuff. There were 4 pairs of 2m length cables, of which ive used 2 for the r2r, and 1 3m pair. There are also 3 3m coax digital cables made of puresonic digital cable.
There was also a very hefty looking scart lead that is neither use nor ornament, and a qed qnex a/v lead made up of 3 individual phono leads. it was only 30 quid for the lot so i reckon something of a bargain. The ac110 cable sounds really rather good, i think ill cut up the 3m cables into 1m lengths and make up some normal length ones for the rest of the stuff.
Dunno what the coax cables are like, might have to try one from the tv to the dac. If i can be arsed....

Ordered a tape head demagnetiser from analogue seduction, not bad money at just under 22 quid with the postage
I looked on ebay first because there was a period correct sony one on there that went for 40 quid which i missed, and various other ones ranging from 25 quid up to 115 quid...... who on earth is going to pay 115 quid for a tape head demagger....

Erm........., for years I never used one. I got in the habit of using one in the electronic music studio at Goldsmiths' because we were required so to do. When I left I didn't look back. A few years later I bought a four channel dokorder and that needed demagging- really. More years with 4000ds and an also 1721l and a user something.... Nothing. Much later a big and beautiful Teac 3340 the best , no demagging- even though I still had one. Finally I went hard drive.

I loved the Teac, all others were machines like any old lap top is.

Demaggers, well I suppose they would be spensive. R2R is. Enjoy.

There’s a how to on Tapeheads somewhere Ant, some good advice to follow.

Yeah Ali obviously knows.... About demagging-.

Well the restoration on this machine is now complete.

Last job was to get some servisol and go through all the pots and switches, as there were dropouts every now and then from the monitor switches (it was still recording but the sound through the speakers dropped out until the monitor switches were flicked a couple of times.) The level control pots were also hit and miss, the adjustment wasn't really there. all good now they have been cleaned with servisol super 10.

Sony tc377 restoration complete by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

Here it is without its face, you can see the new belt set I put in earlier when I stripped and cleaned it all shortly after I got it.

Sony tc377 restoration complete by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

And left to right, the motor, idler underneath, and the flywheel whose shaft doubles as the capstan.
The tape path was filthy with oxide again, but it came straight off this time with ipa.

Sony tc377 restoration complete by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

and the fast forward and rewind idlers. These two, the main idler and the pinch roller were treated with rubber renue which has done a really nice job on them, but theres a little bit of shed from the idlers on the drive surfaces. I'll keep an eye on that periodically.

Sony tc377 restoration complete by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

While it was apart also went over the fascia and the cabinet, removed some old stickers that were on the side of it, and cleaned everything up with some ipa and cleaning stuff. I didn't do that properly before as I wanted to make sure it worked properly first.

I had to take the mech completely out of the cabinet to get at the pots, and pondered putting it back in the other way round so it lays down flat instead of standing up. Decided not to as it looks better stood up.

Then monitored whatever it was that the missus was playing to see if the servisol had sorted the pots out, which it has. It now responds to fine level adjustment. Which is kind of important.

happy with that

Found another little problem this morning.
I opened it up again as I realised I hadn't oiled the motor. I'd had it on my list, but not ticked it off. I tend to look at a job for a while first thing before I do anything, then write everything down as a checklist these days with the kids being in all the time. Things are too distracting and I get waylaid too easily. When they go back in a week I shall continue to do so. It's easier.

So having pulled the motor out of the back and given it a couple of drops of oil in both of the oil holes (one on each end bell), I just gave it a look over. I'd not taken the back off yesterday, there was no need to, but I noticed some black deposits that weren't there before. The spark suppressor cap has gone.

Sony tc 377 failed spark surpressor cap by anthony cresswell, on Flickr

Not a particular problem, I'll just cut it out for now and put up with the thump until I get another one. Looks like a 0.1uf job. I can never remember wether I need an x class or an x2 class one to replace it with. I shall look into it