Anyone remember "Scully"

T.J.Hooker

T.J.Hooker

New member
I just picked up "two" Scully 280b 1/2" 4 tracks off the side o' the road. The sign said free multitrack recorders.!!:eek:!!CHYAHH!! I almost caused a ten car pile up slamming on the brakes. I could'nt get back there with my buddy and his van quick enough. One of them needs the main card in the top preamp. I won't know what else until I stick the card from the other in and crank it up. Anyway, my query is, Does anyone know anyone or anywhere I could possibly aquire one of the cards? I don't expect to have too much luck with this mission, but any direction would be greatly appreciated.

THANKS,
T.J.Hooker:cool:
 
Never heard of them before today, and boy, there is many references to them on the net, but not a lot of information. :)

I found both 2, 3, 4 and 8-track machines all called Scully 280-B, so it seems that the actual Scully 280-B is only the mechanics (it all lokos the same), while the electronics look very different even for different 2-tracks.

That is both good and bad. It's bad because it will be hard to find the missing card. It's good, though, because you might be able to replace the broken top preamp with something else. :)
 
Wow, I've never heard of a 3 track before. Anyway I've seen some scully's here and there. There is a 2 track on ebay right now. It's identical to the ones I found, except it's 1/4" and has just one preamp, as one preamp runs 2 channels. It's up to around $200 right now. From what I understand they were state of the art in there time,(1970 or so) and people still want them. Thanks for the input regebro!

T.J.Hooker:cool:
 
Hi TJ,

I worked on a studio back in the early sixties and we had 2 8-tr and a couple of 2tr' Scully's. They had one i/o amp for each channel stacked on top of the deck
At that time they were competing with Ampex and made quite well in europe. I don't remember but I think they were early transistor units..
A little tricky tape transport and quite ugly distortion when overloaded..... today called vitage... ;-)

To find any spares i think you can check out the pro studio side, mainenance companies maybe.....
Good luck with restortion........
rgds
 
rambo said:
Hi TJ,

I worked on a studio back in the early sixties and we had 2 8-tr and a couple of 2tr' Scully's. They had one i/o amp for each channel stacked on top of the deck
At that time they were competing with Ampex and made quite well in europe. I don't remember but I think they were early transistor units..
A little tricky tape transport and quite ugly distortion when overloaded..... today called vitage... ;-)

To find any spares i think you can check out the pro studio side, mainenance companies maybe.....
Good luck with restortion........
rgds
Click to expand...

That's cool, These Units are circa 1969 or newer. The model/serial# plate says

Scully/Microtech
Mountain View CA USA
A Division of Dictaphone

Fortunately they were only outside a few hours on a 70 degree overcast day, and no restoration is really necessary. Just a little cleaning, and TLC.
Either way I have a parts machine right here, And the price was defenitely right on. I can't wait to get some tape.:D

T.:cool:
 
That should probably read Scully / Metrotech. :D

And, yeah, you are right, you can use one for spare parts, because two 4-ch machines are really only useful if you are using them for bouncing, which seems pretty silly in todays multritrack world. :)

First I though you could rebuild the broken one into an 8-track with new heads an new preamps, but then I realized that probably would cost you more than buying a second hand 8-track Otari, and well...it would :D

Good luck with the machines. It's a cool find, and I would have been jelous if my tiny studio hadn't been crammed already. :)
 
That's Right! Metrotech. It's small print, and I looked at it quick. But anyway, yeah, the good one appears to work just like it's supposed to do. I won't know anymore until I get some tape. I'm kinda rural, and in the middle of constructing my studio room. So even with tape I'm limited with what I can do right now until, I get all my gear set again. I think I'll wait until I can go all the way.;) :p

Thanks for the input guys,
T.J.Hooker:cool:
 
Scully also made a 1" 12 track machine...one supposedly used in the basement of Tom Sholtz to record much of the first Boston album.
 
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