Foreign guests and users

[Michael Franz]

Hello foreign guests and users,

not speaking the german language, of course you are wellcome as well. Many of the users here are speaking english, so you can try to discuss in this language.

This is the only board, a guest (not joined in) is allowed not only to read but to write as well. So, if there are any problems in using this boards or to join in, please write here. We will read and help you.

If you want to contact the moderators for questions and help, please send an e-mail to the adress, shown under the link "Impressum" in the lines below the title.

[Peter.H]

Hello Michael,

Thank you for your very kind invitation to join in your forum.

I have visited these pages many times, but have only written on a couple of occasions. It is a dream of mine that I should learn to speak 'German' langauge, but in reality it is not too easy to learn at my age (43 years). Sometimes I need some help from the Babelfish translator.

I have a collection of tape recorders, but it has mostly Philips and Grundig machines, along with some British made tape recorders.

My philips collection starts from the EL3527 and I have many models that include the N4520 and N4522. I am always interested to chat with other 'Philips' Reel to reel fans. I am an Electronics Engineer, by profession.

Lets hope that many others join in the fun and put entries into this forum.

Good luck and greetings from Oxford, England.

Peter.

[4504]

Hello Peter,

welcome to the forum. It is quiet interessting to see that you also mentioned "some" British made tape recordes. Must of the people here in this forum are not quiet familiar with these machines.

So, what about starting a new thread from your side about these machines? What kind of machines do you have?

Greetings, Thomas(4504)!

[Peter.H]

Hello Thomas,

It is nice to have your reply. That is a great ID that you have:-) 4504 is a model that I don't yet have, but I do have the sister model 4512 and 2 x 4506.
In 1978 I spent all of my earnings as an apprentice on a 4515. It is the only tape recorder that I have bought 'New'.

I will start a new theme on British machines soon, but Tonbandwelt has a page with some of the machines that I have at http://www.sabinebendlin.de/tonbandwelt/big/41.htm

Greetings

Peter.

[David77]

Hello Peter.

Always nice to meet people from other countries.

I think everyone here is interested in British machines, they're a bit of a mystery here on the european mainland. The most popular (and maybe most feared) would probably be the Ferrograph 7. How come that British recorders never made their way to us?

Waiting for your opinions,

David

[dl2jas]

Dear Peter!

I think, some more English speaking people have problems with the German language... congrats to your German knowledges!
As well Germans who want to understand texts in English, especially with technical terms have problems.

Here are two links to free dictionaries I know, useful for Germans and English speaking people:

http://dict.leo.org/

There are two little flags. Klick the flag you need, English < German or English > German!


http://www.linguadict.de/

Similar, you see two input fields, German and Englisch.
In the right corner is an input field. If you click Engish, you have an English surface on your screen.


I have tested with both dictionaries:

tape recorder - Tonbandgerät
belt - Riemen
brake - Bremse
flywheel - Schwungrad
pinch roller - Andruckrolle

Both dictionaries seem to be useful for technical English - German and vice versa!


Andreas, DL2JAS

[Peter.H]

Hallo David,

I am pleased to meet you.

Firstly, I must say that I'm not a big fan of British machines, but they are plentiful at fleamarkets, garage sales and ebay in the UK.

The small domestic tape recorders that were made in the 1960's usually had the mechanics that were made from the Record Player mechanism manufacturers of the time, such as BSR and Collaro. Even 'Garrard' made a Cassette type tape deck, which had 2 x 75mm reels in a plastic case. The Electronics were normally made by another company. (for example 'Elizabethan', 'Dansette', 'Ferguson' & 'Fidelity')

In my opinion, the Ferrograph has a good performance, but it has the appearance that is not pleasing in the home. There are too many 'screw heads' where it should be smooth! Maybe this is why they didn't sell in most of Europe?

I prefer the Brenell machines. http://www.brenelltape.co.uk/
They had a nicer finish quality. Also they had German made 'Bogen' tape heads and 'Papst' motors!!! (usualy 3 of each)


mit freundlichen Grüßen

Peter.

[Peter.H]

Dear Andreas,

Thank you for your Links to the Dictionaries - They will be helpfull.

Peter.

[David77]

Most German machines from the 60ies were quite awfull, too. Here I'm thinking of all those Grundig, Telefunken (not the professional line), etc. machines. They were mostly equipped with two heads and one motor and a LOT of mechanics.
In the late 60ies some nice machines appeared, though. E.g. SABA SH600 and all the Uhers.

The Brennels look quite intresting, surely worth to have a closer look.

Were there any professional British recorders? I haven't heard of any.

David

[Peter.H]

Hello David,

I don't know much about the professional machines, but I think they were made by companies such as Leevers-rich and EMI.
http://vintagerecorders.co.uk shows some of these.

Peter.

[highlander]

Hello Peter,

thank you for following the invitation As you can see: I'm not the only guy who's interessted in the brands from your country!

[Nolan Leve]

Well,its a pleasure to be a part of this comunity,since I work with reel recorders when I was a boy.When I was sixteen,I get from my father a Geloso recorder(G-268) with 3 speeds and mono,of course.This was really the beguining of a hobby that still induce me to buy old machines until today.My second machine was a Sabafon TK-125 S (yes,stereo) and the sound was so good using external amps that it beats at 9.5 cm/s a Sony deck,the TC-250,working at 19 cm/s!

Unfortunatelly I sell the Saba.Mechanical problems was very severe in Saba brand,mainly the belts that simple decompose.And the sound in it speakers
was so weak that was impossible to listen normally in a small party.I have a Saba TK-220 now,in superb conditions and understanding eletronics as I do now,I can see that is a really fantastic piece of technology from the 60/70s.

By other hand,I still have my first Geloso:It works perfect.The secret in Geloso(the first series-most of the machines) is to keep the black key (stop) depressed,since with this you release the pinch roller from the capstan.Otherwise you can permanently damaged the pinch roller.Its a big project error,but the Geloso mechanics(and eletronics) are quite simple.This simplicity permits that my machine survives almost 40 years ...working.The Geloso recorders has a elementary head since they are cheap machines,but they had a excelent loudspeaker,powerfull enought to move away a small party! Thats the Saba fails...Saba chassis was made of "zamak" a material that deteriorates with age.My TK-220 needs to be cleaned ,but now I put motor oil in the exposed parts(inside) that prevents this deterioration. I live in a tropical contry and I suppose that Geloso is more prepared for heat and umidity...Of course I changed several eletrolitic capacitors in both machines and in the most of the recorders in my collection.I have actually about 80 recorders. Reel machines by Geloso,I have all models,because the brand was represented here by a big ham radio company.In the middle 60s was possible to find Geloso (recorders and Radios) in all stores..

However I have special atraction on germany machines.Mecanically fragile(its a teraphy to me to put a Uher back to work again),they have,however a fantastic sound quality,a true HIFI compared to an CD for example.Uher,Grundig,Loewe Opta and Saba was (and are) a must.Many old tapes that I had recorder years ago can be remastered with exceptional results thanks to the brilliant characterists of my made-in-germany recorders.And of course there is the....Revox.I have only one:The A77,that guive me much pleasure in the past and recently.

I still working in a pro-studio that almost close by the piracy.During the last 28 years I installed and fixed most professional brand machines,like Ampex,Scully,MCI,Otari and Studer.We have several Studers at Som Livre...All of them are Studers(A-80/A-820/A-827) with 2 and 24 channels.These machines are now useless.As you may know,Disidesign Protools is a recording software-hardware that simple finish with recording professional machines.A multitrack (2 inches) tape costs in Brazil,about U$450
and you need several running in 38 cm/s with Dolby SR to make a CD.The price of an external HD with 250 Gb is U$400 capable to hold an entire project!
And for two track(stereo) a tape costs U$50.People here mix direct to Protools or to CD-RW discs(U$1,00).Each music,one CD-RW with several mixes
that was at the end transfered to a Sonic Solution MAC computer to generate a master and then,erased...Studios want to generate music and money and all these new technologies will at list,definetively kill the pro-reel machines......

So people like us keep the domestic reel tradition going on and that,I believe,is a reason to maitnain such lovely machines going on!

Regards to all here,

Nolan

[Peter.H]

Hello Nolan,

Greetings from Oxford in England.

I have just been looking at the excellent pictures of your wonderful recorders on Tonbandwelt Seite 35-39. A very nice collection in what looks to be pristine conditionļ
It must have taken lots of searching to find such a large collection, in fine condition?

The brand Geloso is something quite rare in England. Perhaps there are a few around, but I don¡¦t think that they sold many here.

Some of the other brands in your collection are much more familiar to me. The Grundig models are here in great numbers. I think there is a Grundig TK20 hidden somewhere in the attic of most houses over 40 year oldƒº Many of the Grundigs that were sold in England had the label ¡¥Made in the united kingdom¡¦. I think that the biggest differences between UK and German made Grundigs is that the UK models were fitted ¡¥Mullard¡¦ valves (tubes) instead of Valvo? Another difference was the line cable, which has 3 wires instead of 2. Which country were the Grundig tape recorders that were sold in Brazil made?

The Philips EL3548 is a model that has a fond place in my heart. My parents bought me one of these second-hand when I was in my childhood years. It was nearly always switched ¡¥on¡¦. I used to record pop music from ¡¥Radio Luxembourg¡¦, which was broadcast on the AM band, complete with lots of crackles and fading! I still thought it was great, because they were the only station that played all of the music that I liked. Sadly this is no longer broadcast on AM, but it can be heard on the internet and DRM! Whatever that is? www.radioluxembourg.co.uk It still plays my type of musicƒº

It is interesting to hear about the way that the professional use reel to reel machines. For Myself it is purely a hobby and means of relaxation.

You mention that ¡¥Zamak¡¦ chassis deteriorate with age. In what way does Zamak deteriorate? I have some Philips cassette decks (N2552, N2538) that use a Zamak chassis and I always thought that it should last almost forever.

Keep keeping the tradition of the Reel to reel tape recorder alive in Brazil!

Best regards,

Peter.

[David77]

Hmmm, I didn't know that Grundig had production lines in other countries.
I always thought they came from Nürnberg, just with frontpanels in different languages.
Where was the UK plant?

David

[David77]

Zamak -> Legierung Zinkdruckguss -> zinc diecast

How is it possible that an alloy is deteriorating? In what way is it deteriorating?
Does heat and humidity cause those problems? One would think that that stuff should last forever, very odd.
I know of some Revox A77 recorders being used in tropical conditions (Australia, QLD) for more then 30 years now. They didn't show signs of deterioration and they also have zinc diecast chassis.

David

[Peter.H]

Hello David,

I do not know the exact location of the UK Grundig production, but my TK 14, TK18, Tk120, TK121, TK145 and TK146 all have 'Made in United Kingdom' in the case plastic moulding. This is also the same on the cassette recorders C260 and C420 that I have. I think that the models TK200 and TK400 were only produced in the UK?
Perhaps Alard can help answer the question of other worldwide Grundig production lines? There is something about it at the bottom of his Grundig history page- http://www.taperecorders.nl/his.htm

I will search for more information on this subject.

Peter

[David77]

Alard writes that the TK18 and TK12 were produced in England, the TK200 and 400 in Belfast, Ireland. So one could assume that Grundig had two plants in the UK, or at least that they moved the plant once.

But wouldn't the "Made in..." label read "Made in Ireland", if the production was in Belfast?

I know that HP has (or had) a plant in Ireland, and they print "Made in Ireland" on their goods.

David

[Peter.H]

David,

I just looked at my map and it shows that Belfast is in Northern Ireland, so I guess that it is likely that they be marked "Made in UK" ? - but something that is made in (Southern) Ireland would always have "Made in Ireland".

Peter.

[David77]

Peter,

Well that makes sense. Frankly, I didn't look up Belfast on a map and I always keep forgetting that Northern Ireland is part of the UK and Southern Ireland is not.

David

[Alard Roose]

Hello,
The place is DUNMURRY Ireland.

Greetings Alard.

And.... Peter, thanks.

[highlander]

Here are two pictures from Peter:

[Michael Franz]

Hello Peter, Hello Nolan,

Timo, my moderator suggested this board to catch foreign users beeing afraid of the german language. My startposting to this thread should be an information for them and I sticked it to the top of the board. Unfortunately I forgot to close it. By the way, I did'nt hope to catch anyone

Now I'm very glad to see, that you're discussing about interessting topics. Please feel free to open own threads, maybe here or maybe in the other boards. It's no problem, to write an answer in english into a thread kept in german language. Maybe the response is lower as usual, because it makes an effort writing in english, but some of us do it right well and may translate, if needed.

Or do you think it's better to stay here "... in the ghetto ", so that all "international threads" are concentrated here, easy to find for other foreign users? If so, we can collect them here first, an push them to the right place "inside" later while leaving a link here.

So welcome here and have fun.

[dl2jas]

I think, both ideas are good.

People who understand a little bit German will (I hope so) use the "normal" boards directly.
Other users without knowledges about the German language can open here a thread. If it is an interesting thread for the whole community, not only a simple question, the thread will be moved by the admin or a moderator. Only the headline and the link will appear in this board.

Andreas, DL2JAS

[Peter.H]

Hello Michael, Hello Andreas,

It is very enjoyable for me, to be involved in this forum.
I have not been writing in any forums before, so I was unsure how to start a new thread. Now highlander has kindly explained to me how to use this forum.
If it is Okay for me to put Englisch posts in the main forum, then I would be pleased to be able to do this. My German grammar is not yet good enough to write in German, but it is not a problem for me to read a reply if it is written in German.

Thank you,

Peter.

[~Nolan]

Hello Peter,Hello everybody:

First of all,I am totally lost about this board,since some key navigation instructions are in germany.I suppose that I need to use my name and password to acess but util now,these procedures are not required to me...

Thaks for the compliements about my collection,in fact I spend more than 20 years to find all that I want.Since Brasil is a tropical country,hot and "moisty",a lot o tape recorders was impraticable to repair and to collect.They was very rusty and people here are not very interested to care and to worry or even to keep old and vintage equipment.Its a pitty,since a lot of fantastic machines was trow away.

Geloso brand was sold in England with the name "Elpico".This Elpico recorder are the Geloso 256....Of course some Geloso recorders was exported to England,but most of the production for export was sending to USA and Latin America.

I will send some photos to Andreas(and he put in this board-since I dont know how) of "Zamak deterioration" that is like a virus and attack my Sabafon 220.Its in fact,an oxidation that leaves a white dust.
At the moment I stop this desease,but I must be in constant alert and open the recorder for check every six months.May be this situation happens here
caused by the high humidity level in the air.I will send the photos.But another thing that was a torment here in Brazil ,are the belts.Why european machines used so much of these mechanics? Philips,for example,uses an belt material tha simple desapears,leaving a black sticky garbage glued in the polies.It gives a lot of work to clean. The Saba TK125 uses a sintetic belt that are incapable to rewind the tape after just one year of use.The most inteligent use of belts I saw in the Uher´s series 4000.Fantastic,easy to find new ones here...But the Uhers has their problems too...the rubber coating in the flyweel became hard with the time (10 to 20 years) and the sistem beguins to slip,resulting in flutter increase.For the curious people,I cand send a photo of this problem too.
Well,thanks again for talk about and to me.I hope these comentaries reach all of you,

Regards,
Nolan

[~Nolan]

Oh,I forguet to answer about the procedure of my Grundigs.Here in Brazil,99% comes from Germany.However I have just one that was made in England(well made :-) and still working.Except the TK-6 all my recorders are tube (valve) machines.Even the TK-1 has one.

I will be in Italy (I´m not shure if I will be in Germany yet) before the end of the year,and I pretend to find one or more Geloso cassette machines to bring back to Brazil and some Technical Bulletins fro Mr.Giovanni Geloso. I think that I have now all "reel" models from Geloso...And is incrible,all are mono machines.Geloso never made a Stereo one! Another curiosity is that the original design of all Geloso Records was done by a company called "Magnetofoni Castelli" that sell the last models in some European Coutries using several brands.In France,for example,the name was "HifiVox" and in Spain was "Remco"

Again,Regards,
Nolan

[Peter.H]

Hello Nolan,

If you are having trouble with understanding the German language, perhaps you can put the web address into a translator, such as Babelfish? I would assume that your primary language is Portuguese, but I cannot find a free translator that will go German to Portuguese. But it can do from German to English, if that helps? Maybe another member knows of one that goes direct to Portuguese?

Now I know the type of degrading problem that you are having with Zamak. This I find amazing, as we do not get this sort of problem at all in this part of Europe. Only perhaps with people that live very close to the coastline. I always thought of Zamak as a perfect material to make a tape recorder chassis out of!

The problem with melting drivebelts is also a big problem here. A horrible cleaning job. Perhaps a solution would have been to use a tiny spring instead. If the picture that I attached works, then you should see a picture of a capstan belt from a 1950's Wynsor/Lane machine. This is surprisingly quiet in operation.

https://tonbandforum.de/bildupload/lanebelta.jpg

I have seen the brand Elpico here. They did not only sell the Italian Geloso machines, but also some English machines, based on the BSR TD2 tape deck mechanism.

Regards

Peter.

PS Michael and Andreas, sorry to continue in this thread, but I didn't want to break the continuity of the discussion.

[Alard Roose]

Hello,

Today i have a new questbook.

Alard.

[Peter.H]

Hello,

I have Semih's interesting homepage as one of my 'Favourites' - But now I get a page about Martial Arts??? Tape recorders are what I would rather see:-)
Has his homepage changed its web address? If so, can anyone please tell me the new address. Thank you.

Peter.

PS the address that I use is www.makarateyp.com

[WebUncle]

Hello Peter,

the page is still working! Perhaps a temporary problem or you should clear your browser cache?

http://www.makarateyp.com

Regards,
Ralf

[Peter.H]

Hello Ralf,

Thank you for replying. I have not been able to see this page for nearly a week! Tried to 'Refresh' many times. I have tried using 2 different internet service providers, but they both come up with the same martial arts page. Is it possible that the same internet address can give different pages in England and Germany? If so, I think I will have to move to Germany, because you get a better result:-)

Regards

Peter.

[Michael Franz]

I deleted two Spam-Posts I found just above the posting of "Muhssin". It's because such Spam, new Members are not allowed to write immediately after registration. They first have to answer an e-mail and to explain their reasons for joining this forum. Spam robots don't answer. We get about 20 to 30 new members a week, only about 10% are real.

The "Board for foreign unsers" is the onlyone which is completely open, so that guests may write. It's because to make things easier for foreign user not knowing how to act in a german speaking forum.

Sometimes spammers find their way to this only board, where they can write. Sorry for this.

=> Nolan: As a guest you are, you can read everything.Writing ist possible only in this board. Of course everyone is allowed to write in English in german threads. So I will help you to join.

Please send me your e-mail-adress. Send it to the adress you find under "Impressum" in the linklist above, under the title-linie.

I'll get you an account, if you do so.

[Peter.H]

Hallo David77 and all,

Following on from post nummer 8 in this thread, I have seen some pictures of British Leevers-rich and EMI professional tape maschines on eBay. http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?View...%26fvi%3D1 for the Leevers-rich and http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?View...%26fvi%3D1 for the EMI. ( I hope that the links are working?) Sadly, if anyone should want to buy these, the seller says that they have to be collected from Painton in the county of Devon, England.

Regards

Peter.

[Manuel]

Hello everybody!

I´d like to know if somebody of you living in the United Kingdom or in the Netherlands could help me finding an answer for my question which I posted here:

http://forum.magnetofon.de/index.php?topic=3088.0

Thank you!
Manuel

[Peter.H]

Hello Manuel,

I hope I can help you a little on this question?

In the late 1970's I was an apprentice working at the large EMI building at Hayes in Middlesex, England.
EMI had their "Emitape" factory on the Dawley Road, which was opposite the building that I worked in. I was told that EMI were putting their tape onto Philips reels, but I thought that these reels were only for the UK market??
It is interesting that you liked the quality of these EMI tapes, because I bought some as 'Staff Sales' and found that they caused the tapeheads to become dirty! The Cassette tapes were very bad for this :-(
Maybe you might be able to find out more on your question if you email at the address on this website. http://www.emiarchivetrust.org/visitingus.aspx

Regards

Peter.

[Manuel]

Hello Peter,

thank you very much for your answer. Well, I don´t know which Philips reels were designed for the U.K.-market and which were for the rest of the world. The only thing I know is that it has been quite difficult for us here in the free state of Bavaria to get any Philips tapes. Only when you have bought a brand new tape recorder, there was a Philips tape included and an empty spool.

At our local shops, the only brands you could get were AGFA and BASF, of course. Everything else... well, in the 1980s you could find Maxell and TDK in almost every supermarket. But things were different in the 1970s, anyway that´s what I´ve been told. It was long before I was born.

So... you say that EMI tape was put onto Philips reels, which is really very interesting. Other experts say that from 1968 to the year 1981 the "RMG" in Oosterhout/Netherlands were producing the tapes for Philips. Even a connection to 3M/Scotch is possible for both - Philips and EMI.

Well, as you could read at the neighbour-Forum I have a feeling that the answers are to find somewhere in England or in the Netherlands, perhaps even in the U.S.A.

Talking about the quality of EMI and Philips - there is nothing I can say against it. Superb quality, it´s my first choice for great recordings beside Maxell and AGFA. Also many of the 3M/Scotch-tapes are absolutely gorgeous, I don´t know why people don´t like it.

Thank you also for the link, I will try to contact EMI and let´s see what they´ll have to say.

Best regards,
Manuel

[Riho]

Hello everyone,

It is very interesting to read your discussions about the machinery not made in eastern block. That's because I am living in Estonia and I've been collecting formeer USSR sound equipment for all my life. Now having about 40 reel to reel decks, only three of them are western - Uher Report Stereo 4000 IC, Tandberg model 15 and Sony TC-366 which unfortunately has some kinda mechanical problem that I'm not able to fix (I even cannot find the place where the problem is :-(). But the Uher and Tandberg work perfectly. And compared with Soviet things, they're like night and day - western decks are made so correctly and expertly. On the contrary for most Russian stuff you never know when something decides to break up on it.
Anyway, if you've got some Russian machine(s) and you've got problems or questions about them, don't hesitate to ask me. Hopefully I can help ;-)

Regards,
Riho

[Peter.H]

Hello Riho,

It is great to hear about your R2R collection. You said in another thread that you are 19 years old. Most people of your age would have their music collection in a digital form. It is good that you have grown an interest in these older, but far more interesting ways to store your music - Keep it up.

Just a little guess with your Sony TC-366 - Does the function control knob keep returning to the stop position, when you take your hand off? (Nearly every one I have seen does that.) If yours does, it is the mechanism that stops the machine when the tape ends that is at fault. This is probably caused by the grease on the latch that has turned hard. Dismantleing and spraying \ cleaning out with something like WD40 (If you have that in Estonia?) will usually cure that problem. The Sonys give very good audio results when they are working, so it is probably worth the time to fix them.

Regards,
Peter
England.

[Riho]

Hi Peter,

You were totally right! Yes that's the bug. I thought there is a problem with certain mechanical part (some lever crooked etc) but... This thing is quite different from Soviet machines (those are almost always the same inside and most of the parts are universal for most brands and models). Now I can check this thing over with different look. Thank you very much for the tip .
Haven't concretely heard about the WD40 but we can buy here different sprays and other cleaning/restoring stuff. And just toady I'm going to do it.

Reel2reels have been my passion for whole lifetime. Using vinyls and R2R-s for listening music is much more interesting than mp3 or other digital system I think. Next thing I plan to get is old VHS videocam which uses the full size cassettes

Yours truly,
Riho

[~Reel_To_reel_Man]

Hello!
I have signed up to this great looking site but I can’t seem to post when logged in, any ideas?

I have seen some interesting photos of unusual machines here, I have been looking for somewhere who have other machines to the standard domestic recorders, hoping I can offer help to people and interesting pictures of tape recorders, some of which can be seen at

www.vintagerecorders.co.uk

[Michael Franz]

Now you're allowed to post. Due to spam, we disabled the automatic acces after registration. Welcome here.