This must be pretty rare

[jpmorris]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1-12-Track-He...39:1|66:2|65:12|240:1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

...for posterity's sake, the auction description reads:

1" 12 Track record head (I think-see pic)
Relapped by Branch and Appleby in 1987
In good cosmetic order
May be for revox/studer machine
Used and sold as seen with no returns
be sure its good for your purposes

Currently £5. He seems to have two of them. I'm half-tempted to snag one as a collectable.

 

[Richard King]

I suspect that's for a data recorder rather than an audio recorder (maybe).

 

[Richard King]

I suspect that's for a data recorder rather than an audio machine (maybe)

Sorry for the dupe post. The site seems to have burped (or belched)

 

[jpmorris]

I suspect that's for a data recorder rather than an audio machine (maybe)
Sorry for the dupe post. The site seems to have burped (or belched)

Could be, though I'd have expected a higher track density for a data recorder (12 tracks on 1/2" for example, or 64 tracks on 1"). There was such a format, though - Tom Scholtz supposedly had a Scully set up to use it, and I remember heading that Frank Zappa used it too. When he came to remaster some of that stuff, they couldn't get hold of a compatible headblock, so they used half of a 24-track Studer fitted with a custom-built set of 1" tape guides.