A lot depends on what you're planning to do, how many tracks you'll need and things like that. These days there are several ways of working:
1. Track on tape, mix to tape (the traditional way)
2. Track digitally, mix to tape
3. Track on tape, import into DAW, mix digitally
...and a plethora of in-betweens like tracking to digital through the tape machine (and compensating for the tape delay in the DAW)
The 34 seems to be a nice enough machine, but it does only have four tracks, so to my mind it's too few to track to, and too many to use for mixdown (a 2-track 1/4" machine will get you better quality than a 4-track one, since each track will be wider than on the '34).
It is possible to track entirely to a 4-track machine - a lot of the Beatles records, Surrealistic Pillow, SF Sorrow were all done on 4-track (though using 1-inch wide tape for most of them, probably 1/2" for the Airplane).
But be aware that they did it by constantly mixing down and copying to another tape deck, and thereby creating space to record more tracks on. This would be a pain in the ass and is not very user-friendly.
I think some people do that here, but I am not enough of a traditionalist to want to do it myself (and this is someone who labels his tapes with traditional Dymo labellers because a modern one would spoil the period look
).
What I did personally was I got a 2-track machine first and mixed things down to that. Then, when I was comfortable with using a tape deck, I got an 8-track machine and began tracking to that and mixing down to the 2-track machine.
At the end of the day a lot depends on the type of music. If you're going to be doing a rock opera or something, you'll almost certainly want more than 4 tracks, however you go about getting them. If you're doing a simple
acoustic guitar and vocals only, you would probably get away with it.
Okay, shopping for a deck:
I don't know what the street value of a 34b is these days, but IMHO you could probably get a 1/2" 8-track deck for that kind of money. Even if you need more tracks than just 4, it might make a nice machine to cut your teeth on, but it's a little steep for a 'trainer' deck
The big question with these machines is always "are the heads okay?". You'd be looking at around $130 per head to replace them if they aren't. See if you can get the seller to get a decent photo of the heads, and post it here.
Other stuff, like the drive belt turning to goo is harder to establish without opening the machine up.
As for the tapes, it depends what they are. If they're Quantegy or RMGI branded, they should be good. If they're Ampex, it's quite likely that they have become sticky and you probably don't want to use them (though chucking the tape away and keeping the spools might be viable).
Anyway, that's my initial take, I hope it is useful.
Oh yeah, and if you are planning to track to 4-track tape, you will need a mixing desk, unless you're planning to dump the tracks back into the DAW as they are recorded.
I should probably also mention - since this has tripped some people up - that when I say 4 tracks, that is four MONO tracks. Some people have expected it to be four stereo channels, and then been disillusioned and all "Who would design it like that!?".
A 4-track machine isn't the best for stereo work, unless you have the patience of the Beatles or the Pretty Things. Or are recording very simple songs.
Hope that helps.
