The Weirdest Reel to Reel tape recorder I have ever seen! Part 2 Teardown 

My favourite bit is the track counter, with its futuristic, art-deco aesthetic. It is a beautiful piece of design on its own, like an elevator from the Empire State.

So is it possible that this was someone's backyard shed prototype and it was never commercialized? It looks so amazing. Also the colour and everything, really. If it's mechanism could be reproduced and 3D printed I would buy the kit immediately. Can't wait to hear it play

Looks like something where you'd need a crazy long play time, like for dictation or continuous background music.

This second part make me think even more that this mechanism is related to, inspired by or a precursor to the 4" mechanism in the Schaub Lorenz 5001 that Techmoan did a video about.

This looks like it would take 2-inch magnetic tape, which would not have been easily available to anyone at home, and probably not at all available until the 70s. Since the device looks like its from the 60s or earlier, this would argue against it being "from the back of a magazine" or some such, imo. Otoh, a company could make their own or order custom tapes. The mechanism is clearly designed to play many hours of music without need for intervention, so to me, this is a device meant to supply background music for an office or a store (or maybe some elevators). At least, that's what the transport seems designed for. The mounting is really weird, though. Maybe an engineer or hobbyist got his hands on a spare transport and made this for personal use. I know from experience that, in the 70s, it was not at all unusual to re-purpose old tube amps inside radios, which this could well be. Still, where would he get the tape for it? My guess is that it's a prototype for a Muzak-type machine similar to 3M's Cantata system.

I love the museum of broadcasting! Very interesting machine! Would love to see it in action

Fascinating. I would be really interested in hearing what is actually on the paper tape.

Really interesting, never seen anything like that! Looks like it wants 2" tape! Is it rim drive or is there something special going on under those reels!? Maybe it is rim drive, but the reels don't have much tape so that doesn't matter if it plays smooth.

hey there, is there any chance we can see more of this machine ? i would absolutely love to see it running and hear whats on it !

You can have that second missing lever knob 3D printed and just paint it black.

To me, this is clearly an engineering prototype machine OR a patent model. I believe the chassis is originally from a wire recorder. It will be interesting to see what the playback time is for the spool of tape. I agree that common two inch magnetic tape could be used on it as well. This is not a high fidelity device. I am thinking telephone answering machine, but it lacks the external trigger inputs for that. Good find. Super rare!! (You have a new subscriber)

I would almost have to say 40's or earlier, this is very much some kind of prototype, especially seeing as it doesn't use a capstan

Wau. Really interesting. First I thought it was a some kind of jukebox. 2” tape was available from 1956 when Ampex made the first ”real” video tape recorder. Perhaps somebody who worked there was able to get some tape. Or was this made for music recording for somebody who first played one instrument and then the secon etc. But how to replay all tracks together?

Interesting! Any progress on this?

This is the coolest thing I've seen in quite some time. 1/4" microphone input, speaker output. Noise was an important issue. Hifi output though -- at least via the device itself, not a priority. But yet expensive 2" tape? Wonder what speed it runs at. Auto-rewind... happenstance, or important to capture everything in the same direction because it makes transfer easier? I wonder to what extent the medium of the 2 inch, 24 track tape was the starting point. I.e. the primary goal being to capture audio on that particular format. Either because the creator had access to that or their work involved/necessitated that format. Vs the goal being more general regarding simply recording sound. Capturing lots of sound. Capturing separate tracks. Repeated recording of something to aid in comparison? So mysterious.

I’m, thinking or guessing this may have been built as a prototype that never went into production as white lion as already said. I may be wrong but to me that seems like it may be the case

Interesting how the youtube algorithm recommended me your video. As others have stated thinking this is a prototype or kit I'd have to lean more toward kit since the erase/record/play also has tune on the back side I wonder if it was sold in a back catalog as either a DIY radio or tape recorder so the builder could choose. Probably just a hodge podge of various items the builder had laying around though just like some of the stuff I've built. Still doesn't explain the origin of the tape transport though. Lot of mystery going on inside there. Would be great if you reverse engineer the circuit and release the schematic as that may be telling. Also wonder if it's using AC or DC tape bias.

Looks to me that they found the tape transport, and made the amplifier and stuffed it all into an old AM radio box. The heavy lead on the tube could be due to microphonics or they were afraid of the tube emitting x-rays?? Once you go to testing may say! Strange, as the sockets and connectors are riveted down as well as the caps, but were they all done the same way, or were the rivets hand done? With the coils and caps, did they have a tape bias system in the design as well? With the mods to the switch, I would think they had feedback problems? Hope you get it going!

An interesting puzzle. -- It's likely not purely DIY "homemade." Though it could be a prototype. The head mechanism and reels are clearly professionally manufactured, not very likely to be homebrew. There's probably more of them (or were) somewhere, in some form. Maybe the transport was constructed for a more sophisticated device and this was an attempt to produce a more portable version. There's no tube part labelling on the chassis, and the "microphone" label looks kind of sketchy. -- the extra kludgy shielding on the switch and possibly the lead sleeve on the 6J7 suggests that the audio was noisy and they were trying to correct that problem. A clue that supports the prototype theory. -- It's not European, most likely US made. English text on the knobs and a GE labelled speaker suggest this. -- It may have had some product or maker identification that has fallen off due to old glue or something-- possibly around the Volume knob which has a lot of blank space around it. Or identifying marks around the knob area could have been painted over. It could be a repurposed radio cabinet retaining the original cabinet knobs, if so, someone out there might recognize it. Also I note that the labels on the smaller knobs look like they may be separate and even loose and weren't what was on the original radio. And a radio would have had a tuning dial in that area where the Volume knob is now-- the knobs could have come from somewhere else. -- the pink plastic and paper caps look like they might have been replaced at some point. -- one question is, what sort of microphone would be used? Older gear may have used microphones with a different impedance than what is usual today.

3:50. The shield probably would be more functional if they used lead-free solder to form it. Of course lead free solder wasn't a thing back at that time, but it would've been a better shield because lead-free solder is ~90+% copper.

Please take my sub! these two videos were absolutely amazing, I'm looking forward it the rest of the adventure, perhaps it will be possible to listen what was on this tape. Thanks for sharing this discovery

You are aware that wire recorders use magnetic heads just as tape recorders do right? The main difference between a magnetic head for wire and a magnetic head for tape is the wire head has a small V groove for the wire to ride in VS a tape head that has no groove (granted some earlier tape heads do guides the width of the tape) built into the head). I tend to agree its a tape machine as a wire recorder wouldn't give manual control of head height instead automatically cycling the head up and down to keep the wire wrap consistent. Your player reminds me of the internals of this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xE2GEmHque8.html