Ampex MM-1000 Story...

[sweetbeats]

I forgot...

One more picture...Matilda is (with the exception of the main power connector panel and the need for a new power cable) completely reassembled, everything is mounted and connected up...I've replaced some of the audio cards with proper revisions, etc. Just need the power cord and I'd like to have some answers to my concerns about chassis grounding but aside from those items the MM-1000 refurb is done and the machine itself is proper and complete and its time to get back to what I was doing before I got shocked by one of the tension arm posts: getting the transport adjusted.

Here's how it looked at the end of the work last night:

-EDIT- Ehhhh...that's right...I haven't gone into the control panel yet. That needs cleaning up and there is a lamp and a color gel to replace. Maybe a couple hour's worth of work.

-EDIT AGAIN- And just to be clear, by saying the "refurb is done" I'm really talking about a low-level refurb...just getting the machine relatively deep-cleaned (relative to just a wipe-down), getting it operating properly and replacing significantly defective parts and/or installing missing items. There is still plenty of work to do but I'm learning to pace myself. I'm saving recapping anything for later as well as replacing bearings in the tape path. Some need it more than others but I want to just get the thing up and running right and live with it for awhile..."see what she'll do" so-to-speak rather than trying to do everything to the nth degree.

 

[Richard King]

I'm less than pleased with the aesthetic of the final result, but it accomplishes the goal. Here is the finished job...You can see the bundle of input wires going to the 24V supply with the green ground wire strapped in:

Looks like you could use some spiral wrap. We used to use that all the time in wiring studios. I still use it in wiring home theater situations. It's a great way to clean up loose wiring.

 

[caelshorn]

Manual?

Hi, I found your posts through a general internet search. Are you still looking for a full manual for your beast? An ex has left me with the two original volumes of the 1969 MM1000 manual. I'm just putting them on e-bay. We also had a salvaged machine (which we called Bertha), but she got trashed (it's a long story) so all I have left is the manual, and to be honest I really don't want that reminder anymore. A lot of people would just stick it on a bonfire, but I know something like that would be treasured by someone out there. I am skint, however, so even if you coud pay the postage that would be great. I hope your Mathilda brings you joy and lots of lovely warm recordings!

 

[sweetbeats]

Oh my!

Wait...

Are offering me a manual set for just the cost of shipping??

Ooooo...

I'm IN.

Can you send me a Private Message?

 

[cjacek]

MM-1000 manuals for the cost of shipping?

caelshorn, I hope you're for real 'cause that would be awesome for our sweetbeats!

 

[sweetbeats]

Corresponding with caelshorn but she's in the UK...shipping is $$$.

VERY nice offer.

Hey, folks, with extensive help from some folks on the recordist.com Ampex List I think I finally have a handle on the grounding scheme for the MM-1000 and it would seem that my MM-1000 is ready to go in current trim.

Just need to make that new power cord and I'll be able get back to setting up the transport.

 

[sweetbeats]

New Power Cord Finished...

Found some good quality 12/3 stranded power cable at my favorite local electronics dive...

OD on the new cable is smaller than the stock Ampex power cable (because the outer jacketing isn't quite as thick), but it is still fine for the strain relief and is of good quality...same stranding on the individual conductors. $1.75/ft. I made the cable 12'. The original was longer. I figured shorter is better for safety and I didn't want to spend that much for new cable. The room the MM-1000 will be going into is only going to be about 10' x 11' anyway. So $21 for the cable. I went a bit overboard on the wall receptacle end...$9 for a really nice plug. It is a waterproof capable assembly which is just stupid for what I'm doing BUT it has the most incredible collet type strain relief and that's what made it worth it to me. It is very good quality. So, $30 altogether for the cable. I reused the stock Ampex-issue twist-lock on the machine end of the cable as it is in good repair...terminals nice and clean and very thick. Overall the cable came together very nice.

OCD kicked in and I removed the original Ampex heat-shrink p/n band off the old cable and shrunk it to fit the new cable...it is down by the machine end of the cable with the twist-lock connector.

Here it is...off to go triple-check my connections and re-mount the power receptacle panel on the back of the machine:

 

[sweetbeats]

Later That Same Night...

Some good, some not so good (but not horrible...just gonna take some figuring out).

Too tired to go into a dissertation on it now. Imagine that...betcha never heard me say THAT before...

I will say that it sounds incredible...

 

[Muckelroy]

That giant red Record button looks a lot like Hal the computer >

 

[lo.fi.love]

Are those NOS Ampex Wheat Thins that I see in the corner?

 

[sweetbeats]

Muck...that record light is my fav...I have to figure out why the PLAY light goes out when I put the transport into REC mode...need more lights. The individual track record lights are dropping like flies unfortunately. If you look back on the pics from when I first powered it up all 8 were lit...I think I'm down to 5. I DO think I have some spares tho'.

The greenish yellow and auquamarine colored transport mode switches with the ruby red record lamp screams late 60's. Worth the price of admission.

Incandescent lamps rock.

Jeff, yeah...genuine Ampawheats...seriously stale tho'.

So here's something I never even thought about...the VU meters are SO fast and RESPONSIVE... I was testing the electronics out last night and the record and playback functions with my bass guitar and, no joke, you can pull an open low E and see the frequency of the E note in the VU needle.

Everything works except there are problems with channel 6...when I try to record on track 6, as soon as I put the transport into REC-PLAY it completely dies. I have to close the safety switch (swing the supply tension arm all the in) and then apply tension on the tapa again to close the switch applying power to the transport again. Totally weird. If I disconnect the 4-pin plug to J14 of channel 6 (that goes to the sync electronics box) then it works. So at least I've narrowed it down and I'll be able to figure it out I think. The repro card on channel 6 sounds like dirt too...I'll figure that out and/or I've got spares. Other llittle niggling things but overall I'm pretty pleased.

And I can't believe how QUICK the audio is either monitoring the input or when reproducing. So quick and dynamic. Its like nothing else I've ever used. Its deceiving because it looks, well, so OLD y'know? But it does not act that way.

 

[purerad]

Just goes to prove what I say alot...........
Alot of those old engineers knew what they were doing...........
and were a heck of alot smarter than what we give them credit for!

 

[sweetbeats]

Here is a video I took at the end of the work last night.

YouTube

In it I demonstrate the problems with channel 6.

I realize I'm pretty much alone on this thing because there are so few MM-1000 owners but if there are any ideas/comments I'd welcome them. I need to study the schematics some more and then I'll probably post on the Ampex List if I'm still stuck.

 

[The Ghost of FM]

Here is a video I took at the end of the work last night. It is in Quicktime .mov format...its about 25Mb.

https://www.torridheatstudios.com/ftp/share/movies/Ampex%20MM-1000-8/2010_05_15/MVI_7028.mov

In it I demonstrate the problems with channel 6.

I realize I'm pretty much alone on this thing because there are so few MM-1000 owners but if there are any ideas/comments I'd welcome them. I need to study the schematics some more and then I'll probably post on the Ampex List if I'm still stuck.

Have you tried swapping the channel entirely with a working channel? That would at least tell you if the short is in the channel electronics or in the umbilical cabling or possibly in the sync module down below.

The rampant blown light bulbs is also a sign of trouble afoot in the power supply..Perhaps an over-voltage situation? Unless these bulbs are all dying of natural causes?

Good luck, Corry!

Cheers!

 

[sweetbeats]

I now have an 8-track

As opposed to a 7-track.

I had been dabbling in my mental periphery today what to do next and something about your post, Jeff, made it click. Swapping channel module cabling had been one option floating in my head but something about the way you suggested it made it the ticket so that's what I did.

Full explaination of what the problem ended up being in the YouTube video here:

YouTube

I checked the record and reproduce functions of channel 6 and all is A-OK now, including the disappearance of the sonic dirt that was prevalent last night...I have a hunch it was related to the shorting issue that was the cause of the other issue.

The rampant blown light bulbs is also a sign of trouble afoot in the power supply..Perhaps an over-voltage situation? Unless these bulbs are all dying of natural causes?

Jeff, in my memory I thought there were 3 out...it was late. There were only 2 and of course one of them was channel 6...duh. Of course I never saw that one lit because the transport would die as soon as I hit record when channel 6 was armed. So there is only one rec lamp dead on the mode control module (channel 8). I don't think there is a supply issue although I'm going to check again to be sure. Early on I scoped all the power rails and they were of the proper voltages and were shockingly clean and stable for 40 year old stock power supplies.

 

[cjacek]

Check out Hal....eh, I mean Matilda!!

Ooo, I love it! Check out how immensely cool the tape is threaded, panoramic like. It kinda gives perspective, when you put that 1" tape on there, how huge Matilda is. That's some serious hardware there and I'm happy that a lot (hopefully) of issues have been resolved.

 

[sweetbeats]

Yeah, Daniel...There are so many aesthetic things about an analog recorder that are missing in other (read digital) formats and one of them is the simple task of threading tape y'know? And the MM-1000 is really fun upon which to thread tape...behind this, around that, through this...snake it through these, over this...and that's just half-way.

And as far as issues being resolved, it'll take some work, but all the relays are working...I think some intermittent switching issues may just need switch contacts cleaned and such but overall its pretty impressive that a 40 year old machine can be powered up after sitting for 2~3 years, and probably some long periods of inactivity prior to that, and work this good. I'm understanding something better that Steve Puntolillo at Sonicraft said to me awhile ago and the statement centered around some [brands of] machines that take constant dickering to keep them going right but an old Ampex "wants to work" and that's what its like...like the MM-1000 is ready to go, just needs the cobwebs swept out so-to-speak. Things that were sketchy at first are disappearing the more I use it. Sure I'd prefer if the issues weren't there to start with, but when was the last time you had a hard drive that was acting up that improved with use? I'm not taking a stab at digital. IT hardware and software support is a big part of my job and it just comes with the territory of a micro device...so many components in that category tend to continue going south once they start (and often fast), but this thing wants to work. And after hearing it again tonight (testing channel 6) I'm again asking myself the question "Why have I spent so much time researching and pondering mods and upgrades??" It sounds unbelievable to my ears as-is and it is 100% stock and original. Yes there are some things that I will end up doing over time but my focus has shifted more toward prudence as a priority rather than trying to make it "better". It just floors me that it sounds like it does in spite of it being onvious to me that it needs an alignment pretty bad (because it now has a number of cards from different machines as a result of scavenging to get cards of the proper version in it) which means all kinds of stuff is "off" on it...and I'm SURE it hasn't been biased for the 996 I'm running on it...but it just doesn't seem to care.

My old Ibanez Roadstar II passive electric bass never sounded so good (literally) and I know its not the preamp I'm running it through as I've used it before and the Ampex is doing something to that signal...I'm just running the Ibanez straight into an ART TubeMP OPL, which IIRC is NOT a tube preamp but has a 12AX7 in it as a filter...the rest is solid state opamp circuitry...garden variety. Made in China, and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if it is the same under the skin as a Behringer product that has an nearly identical control layout and feature set. Handy little tool and CHEAP. Gets the job done, but not magical. Now, put the signal through the electronics on the Ampex and I don't know how it pulls out what it pulls out but I'm monitoring out of one ear on a set of Yamaha headphones and I'm not sure I could handle it coming off a set of near-fields. Its that good to my ears, and then when I reproduce it off of tape its all that and a bag of chips...same fast dynamic sound but more mature (or something...hard to describe...) than when monitoring the input.

Dang. I have a rack FULL of processors and tweakers...I have no idea what I'm going to do with them now.

I wish I had a mixer nearby the MM-1000 and a set of drums. The M-__ is packed away right now as we get ready for some construction here in the next couple months...I'll have to rig something up. I'm thinking my Tascam MX-80 might suffice as a kludgey preamp and playback monitor unit. It'll just mean doing some patching when recording and reproducing since its just 8 channel, but I could put a patchbay in the MM-1000 console under the MX-80...its not like I don't have rack space...24U unused to be exact...

Yep...its getting pretty familiar and comfortable. And it really is kind of endearing to just climb right on up onto the transport surface if I need to get to something on top of the overbridge...plenty of room on that same transport surface for a cup of coffee...yeah, I know...kind of a bad idea but its not like its going anywhere and there's so much space on there...its like a table anyway...

 

[The Ghost of FM]

Corry,

Glad to read you got channel 6 working by tracing down the sync cable issue!

Good detective work!

Cheers!

 

[sweetbeats]

Glad to read you got channel 6 working by tracing down the sync cable issue!

Me too!

And better yet, I took the Mode Control switch assembly out today to "go through" them (i.e. clean them and replace one dead lamp on the channel 1 switch backlight...also remedy some kludgey splices that are wrapped in electrical tape that is falling off ), and guess what? The dead record status light for track 8 was just a matter of it being unplugged! So all the red record status lights work!

 

[The Ghost of FM]

Me too!

And better yet, I took the Mode Control switch assembly out today to "go through" them (i.e. clean them and replace one dead lamp on the channel 1 switch backlight...also remedy some kludgey splices that are wrapped in electrical tape that is falling off ), and guess what? The dead record status light for track 8 was just a matter of it being unplugged! So all the red record status lights work!

Good stuff!

I had a similar light issue with my car of all things, with a side body turn signal lamp that I thought was blown and when I took off the lens to get to bulb, I found that the bulb wasn't there as the harness that held it in place came loose and it had only slumped below the lens, so I pulled it back up and snapped back in place and was good to go!

Cheers!