Vintage Thrift Store & Craigslist Finds - Transistor Radio, Console Stereo, Reel to Reel... 

Goodwills can be hit and miss. I've been seeing a lot of cassette tape players and the like of late.

yes, hit or miss, but that is part of the fun. i also like the old flip clocks, clock radios, transistor radios (portable, 9volt, and those are hard to find), etc.

This one was in and out on the audio when I first got it. It would work for a minute and then fade out. I figured out it was the press button switches were really dirty, not getting good contact. Cleaned those and cleaned the pots without removing the chassis, and it works great. Sounds amazing, especially with the pair of external speakers thumping along. This one will probably be a keeper for a while, at least. Lots of bass.

Thanks for watching as always, Dave. I appreciate the fact you take time to comment and let me know you're still here watching too. It means a lot to see you regulars come back time after time. Keeps me motivated.

You & Uncle Doug are my fav's on youtube.. keep up the tonequest & sharing your cool finds. Peace, Dave

Will do, sir.

Thanks. I suppose that is possible. I really did not pay much attention to the speeds on the main motor spindle when I was in there.

The tape speeds and tape sizes on reel to reels are better than compact cassette. They sound really good, actually.

Servicing it right now. Taking a break ATM and then back to it. Video to come soon!

Awesome !

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Kk6oR7PpoKQ.html

4-track SOS to 8-track tape...now that's vintage audio transfer! :)

Yeah, I am actually surprised no one (like Teac/Tascam or Fostex) who was in the business of catering to the "home recording" crowd ever made a multi-tracker that used 8 track carts. The reason the cassette based 4 track was such an obvious idea was because the tape in a cassette is divided as 4 tracks anyway (side one left, right, side 2 left and right, but it becomes a one-sided 4 track cassette), but it seems like 8 track tapes could've been used to make pretty simple and cheap home-recording devices with 8 tracks instead of 4, allowing 4 mics on the kit, bass, couple guitars, vocals. Hell, I'd be hunting one down on the vintage market if they ever did!

The downside would be if the program ran on too long, eventually you'd be recording over your own recording! That would suck. Just have to remember how much time you had left on the tape, or have a tape counter set to stop recording at a certain time.

The Guitologist No, it wouldn't be built like standard 8 track player. The 8 "tracks" inside one of those tapes, if I remember, are side by side. The first song plays, then it "flips" to the next and so on. Each song is on its own track. So it would be (my idea for the 8 track tape based mutlitracker) literally a machine that could record on one or two or 3 or all 8 and also play back all 8 at once. It would only run in one direction, and each 8 track cartridge would be only a few minutes of multitrack recording, but it would also be better quality than a cassette and twice as many tracks.

The Guitologist Holy crap! I just realized, it was 8 "stereo tracks," which really means 8 left and 8 right, and if you made a machine that was mechanically similar to the old porta-studio 4 tracks, but for 8 track tape, it would actually be 16 tracks! I am emailing Teac to demand answers.....

RCA transistor radios of that period were notorious for high directionality. Other brands were MUCH better at correcting for it. If it had been competing stations ALL radios would be built like this. The problem is with the AVC circuit. RCA had poor ones in their portables in those days, It would be too big a deal to correct now but I did note that they had a weird final IF coil with a big ceramic capacitor visible in it. Early versions were half open. I suspect that had something to do with the issue but finding a suitable substitute today is probably impossible. FCC rules in those days kept stations around 200+ miles apart so competing signals were not a big issue. They even limited some stations to daytime-only broadcasting to prevent night DXing issues. Others were required to use directional signals after 5:00 PM. The rules are still there even though the FCC no longer gives a XXX about AM. Digital noise is a bigger issue today.

Ours don't usually either. Sometimes you get lucky though. The Goodwill where I bought the transistor radio also had an original 1990s Sega Genesis complete and in original box for $20. I had literally just bought my wife one of the new Classic systems with like 80 games, or I would have grabbed that too. Almost did anyway just on principle.