Okay. Most importantly, I found somebody to take possession of the nice dead 58. Haven't suggested the photo yet to the Mrs. But, there is potential.
Plus, we have some bites on our vintage upright "cabinet grand" piano we are trying to unload for free. It needs help but has a gorgeous sound. My point? The MM-1000 takes up slightly less space and so the net volume of stuff will decrease overall. Picture here we come!!
Seriously now.
I've had little time to even look at the MM-1000 ("Massive Matilda" as I've dubbed it...), but I
have spent a little time (almost literally) climbing around inside and taking a mental inventory of what's there and the condition of the different components...this is the 8-track for me. Most things are in pretty good shape, just need cleaning up. I don't see corrosion anywhere so that's good. I've learned where some of the stuff that was not mounted is supposed to be mounted (namely one of the power supplies).
Thanks to David "thinbrownline" I have an OEM power cable coming. I was going to rig up a temporary but I decided that the first thing I want to do is isolate the 3 power supplies and scope those rails to make sure they are healthy and within spec before I let them power systems. So the step prior to that is to learn how everything interconnects so I
can isolate the power supplies, and prior to that is locating a manual. Really, really sketchy to dive in without a manual. So to that end I now have (thanks to a couple Ampex List members) a copy of the Ampex Training Manual on the MM-1000. It is not the complete manual but it does go over the transport components and operation, the theory of operation, much of the maintenance stuff, and it has
some parts lists and drawings and schematics. 73 pages worth. Still looking for a full manual, but this will get me going.
Something I learned:
The capstan shaft
is belt drive, but it uses a mylar belt...where you get replacements I have NO idea...lookit the capstan assembly; the black thing hanging down is the motor itself and the housing to which it attaches is the belt housing and the shaft housing itself. Just massive:
The upright rack I got with the $300 haul is an OEM Ampex rack (made by some other company) that matches the MM-1000 and was one of the options for holding the 8 additional electronics modules when ordering the 24-track model. So that's really cool...explains why the paint scheme matches the MM-1000 and everything. Here's a shot of an MM-1000-24 from the training manual with the optional rack...the system on the left:
And this is kind of neat...a shot of the underside of the transport also from the training manual: