When is the last time you saw one of these?

But...but...how the heck to you actually align the 8 track player...?
AFIK...doesn't the head move in an 8-track to play the different tracks on the tape...?...or do I have the backwards, and it's the transport the shifts the tape...?

I'm sure Corey knows!
He's taken just about everything that spins tape, apart at one point or another. :p
 
sweetbeats said:
[h=2]When is the last time you saw one of these? [/h]An 8-track cassette...
Click to expand...

I might have seen one in this ancient audio junk shop just off the Edgware Road in London around 2012/13 as I remember all kinds of old stuff {I definitely remember Beatles cassettes} that you just don't see nowadays. But it might have been the 8 track players I saw rather than the cassette. The last time I remember seeing one was in Nigeria in the late 70s.
 
Must be over 50 years ago I had a Grundig (iirc) tape machine in for repair that was the forerunner of the iPod. A spool of tape 100mm wide and a head that moved up and down it on a system similar to the Strowger tel' exchange.
The idea was you fill the tapes with scores of music tracks, in real time of course! Then you can relax and have hours of music on tap. Fortunately the track selector system was fine and I think I fixed an electronic fault in the (valve) amplifier. Pretty sure it was mono.

Beautifully engineered as you would expect of a post war German product.

Dave.
 
miroslav said:
But...but...how the heck to you actually align the 8 track player...?
AFIK...doesn't the head move in an 8-track to play the different tracks on the tape...?...or do I have the backwards, and it's the transport the shifts the tape...?

I'm sure Corey knows!
He's taken just about everything that spins tape, apart at one point or another. :p
Click to expand...

Sure, the head moves, so not only is there angular alignment, there's lateral alignment, though I don't know if that's adjustable.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
Sure, the head moves, so not only is there angular alignment, there's lateral alignment, though I don't know if that's adjustable.
Click to expand...

'Beats will know but I am sure 8track head just moved 'once' and it was a 4track stacked head so you could have tracks 1/2 or 3/4 SNAP! 5/6 or 7/8?

Ooo! Ooo! Who remembers the Elcaset? Never saw one in the metal. Made for peeps that wanted better quality than cassette but couldn't tie their shoelaces.

Dave.
 
8 tracks were awesome!! Not only did you get the bargain of one or two percent more music during the track changes, I also experienced what it felt like to be trapped wildlife. My teacher used to have to cut me out of a tangle of discarded tapes after I walked to school :)
 
:D :D :D

I’ve had the calibration tape for awhile...it was sent to me by a friend who was in the broadcast industry for decades. He was cleaning out his storage unit of all of his “I’m never gonna get to this” stuff. Among the many open-reel tape machines was a decrepit Wollensak 8075 8-track cassette recorder/reproducer. After we’d done the big exchange of machines, he later found some smaller bits and sent them to me and the 8-track calibration cassette was among the items. I don’t know what to do with it but I’m not keeping it...no need at all for it...I have to think *somebody* in the world could use it, but that’s probably mildly naive. Anyway, we’re continuing to dig out from our move/downsizing from last Fall and I happened upon the box with this thing last night and I couldn’t help sharing...thanks for the replies; tells me I’m not the only weirdo that finds *some* entertainment in this. :)
 
Come on guys - it's not that ancient history. 8 track - endless loop with a foil at the point the end meets the beginning. Passing the insulated guides trigger the head to move up one notch, then at the end it move up again, and again, then finally drops down to the starting position. The head assembly had the usual azimuth adjustment that tilted the head. The mechanism was surprisingly reliable.
 
ecc83 said:
'Beats will know but I am sure 8track head just moved 'once' and it was a 4track stacked head so you could have tracks 1/2 or 3/4 SNAP! 5/6 or 7/8?
Click to expand...

Whenever you press the Program button there's always the same ka-chunk sound. It's not just between the lower four and the upper four. Tell you what, since I'm not doing anything else I'll drag my 8-track deck out and take a picture of the head.
 
rob aylestone said:
Come on guys - it's not that ancient history. 8 track - endless loop with a foil at the point the end meets the beginning. Passing the insulated guides trigger the head to move up one notch, then at the end it move up again, and again, then finally drops down to the starting position. The head assembly had the usual azimuth adjustment that tilted the head. The mechanism was surprisingly reliable.
Click to expand...

I never worked on one Rob. Must have been pretty rugged because they went in cars!
One thing I did do was install about two 45rpm record players in cars. You might not believe it could work but Philips made them and they did, rather well.

Dave.
 
rob aylestone said:
The mechanism was surprisingly reliable.
Click to expand...

I seem to recall that it didn't take much shifting to get some crosstalk between tracks.
The last time I recall using 8-tracks has to be when I was still pretty young...like early 70s...so that's almost 50 years ago....ancient history! :D
That said...when went to FL back in October '18 to bring get my Mom moved up here since her health was failing.

When I was packing her stuff up, she still had one of those "ancient" stereo consoles that house a TV plus a stereo system with turntable AND 8-track player. I don't think any of it much worked, or probably wasn't turned on in many years, and was just serving as a piece of furniture in the living room.
Anyway...she had a pile of vinyl record...and inside the console there were also a bunch of 8-track tapes.
I still have them somewhere in one of the boxes I packed...which are still piled up in my closed porch, and I have yet to go through them and clear out that leftover stuff.

I was going to do it after she passed away, but couldn't get myself motivated...then my construction started, and the boxes are still here, unopened. :facepalm:
 
<Tangent>

miroslav said:
she still had one of those "ancient" stereo consoles that house a TV plus a stereo system
Click to expand...

Yeah, my dad had one of those in a house he had in Fla, as well. We took it, gutted it and turned it into a nice credenza for the dining room.

</Tangent>
 
Ah, the 8 track player.. I remember them well. I had a small one that would fit in the glove box. The tapes were in a box under the seat. You didn't want to mount the tape deck in the dash, as thieves would break into the car and rip it out, usually destroying half of the dash in the process.

Somewhere I think I still have the box with a few of my tapes. They were at my parents house when we cleared it out. BS&T 4, Close to the Edge, Bloodrock Live, Guess Who's Artificial Paradise.
 
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