Open Reel Deck

R

Richard Monroe

Well-known member
Yo guys! I think I could use a little tech support here. I just came into possession of a Roberts 1725- 8L III. First, does anyone have any idea where I can track down owner's or repair manuals for this antique? What I know is this- It was made by Akai for the American market. It's early-seventies vintage is given away by the 8-track cartrige player in the side (how quaint). It is heavier than a box of bowling balls, which leads me to believe there are some bookoo transformers in there somewhere. Lastly, this is the best news- The hands of a top notch analog tape deck repair guy have been in this box within the year. Some transistors have been replaced, and it was given a clean bill of health.
I will probably use it mainly to extract a bunch of archived (old) tape to more stable media. Then I might play around with tape delay and try some of the tricks that involve digital and analog together. Any info is helpful. Yeah, I do sort of remember the days of scotch tape and sharp scissors, but for some reason, my memories of that time aren't that crisp. Ha! But I do want to extract this data, and it does give the studio a sort of retro ambience. So does anybody have any familiarity with this antique? Come on, fellow oldtimers.-Richie
 
I think I briefly owned a Roberts Reel to reel about 30 years ago but, my memory too is kind of fuzzy from that era.:confused: :D

Do you have a picture of this beast for us to gawk at?

Cheers!:)
 
Thanks, the second link did have some useful stuff. FM- I'm working on a picture, but we're pretty flat out. We're a week away from mastering, making final tweaks to the mix. Much listening sessions. Woo hoo!
Anyway, this deck confuses me a little. It has 2 high-Z mic inputs, 2 clearly marked channel I/O's, and 4 big buttons labled 1,2,3,4. I'm thinking it might be a primitive 4 tracker that can only record 2 tracks at a time. Could this be "sound on sound"?
The cool part is the archives. I've managed to find a makeshift power cord for it and get it to play, and the first cut was "Also Sprach Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss, with jazz/rock fusion lead by Richard Strauss III, the grandson of the nephew of the waltz king. And I can tell you, it's in the damn DNA. My can that guy play lead guitar!-Richie
 
Billy,

Nice picture but, not a single Roberts machine in the bunch there!

Everything in that photo was Pioneer.

Damn! They made some nice stuff back then!

It's kind of sad when I saw on CNN yesterday, people lining up to buy a $39.00 DVD player made in China out of plastic:(

How the mighty have fallen.
 
Richard,

unless there are 4 VU meters on the deck it just a 2 channel, 4 track machine, meaning it is designed to play stereo only and at the end of the reel, you flip the tape and go again in stereo on the opposite side. All kind of like a cassette but without the shell to hold the tape reels together.

The 1,2,3,4 buttons might be for mono recording and getting better tape economy for speech recording applications.

A picture would help:)

Cheers! :)
 
The sound on sound feature works like just rewinding and recording again on the same tracks but with the erase head out of the picture.
 
Hi Richard,
I think your model is similar to Akai 1810, with a 8-track player mounted on the side.
Those 4 pushbuttons is for changing the tracks when using the 8-trackplayer.
It is a 4-track deck and if you got the built in amp with speakers mounted on each side of the cabinet, you can use it as a portable unit... kind of heavy I know.
Some were without the built in amp, so a picture will be helpful.
I have a couple of the Akai decks with 8-track and the sound is pretty good Richard.

Best regards
Vintage TX
 
Richard,

Looking at the picture, I don't see anything on there that would point to it being able to do one pass, four track recordings or any form of over-dubbing.

Vintage TX nailed it with the description of the 8 track cartridge 1,2,3,4 buttons being for changing programs or more specifically, head position for the cartridge player which is a big loop of tape in a plastic shell from the 60's and 70's.

If your band is wanting to do any analog recording, I don't think this machine will be of much service for you, other then to use as a stereo recorder, though at it's offered tape speeds and questionable quietness in it's hiss levels, it may not be the best choice even for that application.

Cheers! :)
 
Thanks, all. I hadn't thought of the 1,2,3,4 buttons being for the 8-track. Duh! It's been a while. Actually, as a main deck?- Not. I'm on a Roland VS1824CD, in the process of awitching to Digi002 and a Mac. For remote stereo recording, the Digi002 is a great front end for the Roland, and in the studio, it's a DAW. But I do have a shitload of archived tape, and I do want to review it and convert some of it to digital. Also, "The Recording Guitarist", one of my favorite sources, has a whole section on cool things you can do with an old reel-to-reel in a digital studio. I skipped over that before because it wasn't relevent, but I inherited this old deck for free, what the hell? Anybody know where I can get a power cord for this puppy? 2 wire, no ground, 110v, like the oval 2 pin power cords they use on a lot of boom boxes, but the pins are just slightly too large to fit. Right now it's jury-rigged. Any help is appreciated, I'm in uncharted waters.-Richie
 
Hi Richard,
yes your deck is similar to Akai X-1800 SD.
4-track stereo/mono with 8-track cartridge.
Those 4 buttons ligths up (hopefully) when 8-track tape is playing, you can switch the tracks with button below.
For studio use I don't suggest this model, there is many others that do a better job.
But dubbing tapes to CD, it will work fine Richard.
About the cord, can you measure between the poles, I have a few cords here that maybe fit.
 
For the cord-- just solder a cord to the pins and insulate with heat shrink tubing. Not elegant, but at least you won't lose it.
 
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