Ampex MM-1000 Story...

[mdainsd]

LOL "Im not interested in offers" but selected to have a make an offer button. But, I agree that price is insane. That money would net you a Studer 24 track.

 

[sweetbeats]

Maybe seller wants you to offer to make an offer?

Looking closer at that transport control escutcheon, I'm pretty certain that is actually a piece of MDF that has been milled out for the buttons...

 

[sweetbeats]

My wife and I made time to cozy up by the fire and watch Dave Grohl's Sound City documentary this weekend. I must say it kills me just a little the MM-1000 continues to sit here in the shop waiting for the day I get back around to working on it...

 

[j.harv]

How did you like Sound city?
That's one I keep going back to.
Everytime I watch it, It makes me want to go and mess around with my gear.

 

[sweetbeats]

It was really excellent. Like, I'd-go-buy-it excellent. I didn't realize how many artists who's recordings I've always liked came out of Sound City.

 

[lukpac]

My wife and I made time to cozy up by the fire and watch Dave Grohl's Sound City documentary this weekend. I must say it kills me just a little the MM-1000 continues to sit here in the shop waiting for the day I get back around to working on it...

View attachment 98892

We're all ready when you are

 

[marcuswilson]

Doors

I have the MM1000 8 track originally owned by EMI studios in New Zealand.
It came with doors!

 

[sweetbeats]

No kidding! Those are a rare find on top of the rarity of the MM-1000!

Can you post a pic or two??

 

[sweetbeats]

Nothing to report here except the agony of the project which has no progress in the past four years. The MM-1000 project stalled during the time of my divorce, and there are still emotional and time consuming issues occurring around that...busy day job...and there were moves, remarriage, a new baby...the remarriage and baby are happy elements in all that, but my wife and I have remained very busy and we're having a hard time getting to the conversion of our detached garage to a multipurpose recreational room which will feature music and recording gear. Once that's done there will be space to pick up where I left off...finishing the conversion to 2" 16-track, and I left off in the middle of installing the 16-track wire harnesses and doing some custom harnessing to upgrade the forced air cooling of the chassis. It seems very far off I'll actually be calibrating the machine and recording with it. And recently I moved some stuff around out in the garage and got a closer look at the machine and found evidence of mice...pee and poo. It doesn't look like they have chewed any wiring, at least as far as I can tell. I implemented rodent removal measures immediately and I think I've abated that, but it was just killing me slowly knowing the machine was sitting with pee and poo and dust and dirt on it. A couple weekends ago shared with my wife that it was bothering me and why and told me to go take care of; she'd watch the baby. So I took a couple hours and unearthed the machine and cleaned it up and then wrapped it in plastic.

I feel better, but am starting to have that itch to work on it again, but the time and facilities to do that just aren't available right now.

Here's how it looks these days, everything still mounted all pel-mel from the last move three years ago, crap piled in the bottom of the chassis...





You can see spots of mouse pee and a little mousy turd on these power supply mounting panels:



Anyway, just wanted y'all to know I still have it, its not a dead project, but very much in suspended animation. I often think about just selling everything because I'm not very patient and I can't see when I will be able to return to working on this stuff and finances are a serious issue for years to come, but the MM-1000 is pretty safe since in its current condition it is far less valuable, so to maximize the return on a sale I'd want to fix it up, and then there's the lack of time and facilities...and around we go. Anyway...that's all for now.

 

[RFR]

Look at it this way.....
With all the life changes you've been through in the last few years, many a man would have sold, lost, given away, or otherwise given up and lost interest in this deck.

You still have it.

Edit: Re-read your last post and it seems the intention is to at some point sell it, but the two great barriers of time and money are in the way.
But you've been posting here a bit more than earlier times, which tells me interest is returning. That's a good sign all on it's own.

 

[lukpac]

I feel better, but am starting to have that itch to work on it again, but the time and facilities to do that just aren't available right now.

We still have the itch to see you work on it

 

[sweetbeats]

Look at it this way.....
With all the life changes you've been through in the last few years, many a man would have sold, lost, given away, or otherwise given up and lost interest in this deck.

You still have it.

Edit: Re-read your last post and it seems the intention is to at some point sell it, but the two great barriers of time and money are in the way.
But you've been posting here a bit more than earlier times, which tells me interest is returning. That's a good sign all on it's own.

Well, maybe I wasn't clear...I was stating, in general, I think often about selling off my audio gear because I have a hard time conceptualizing when I'll ever get back to it, AND finances are tight and some of the gear I have would bring in some helpful cash flow, BUT...the MM-1000 is safe because I still don't really have a way or the time to work on it at present or for the foreseeable future, and I'd want it fixed up to maximize the sale price so it is safe from any rash decisions. What was implied in my last post (but not very well) was that decisions to sell would probably be rash...born from my poor ability to be patient and see into the future and trust that there *will* be time at some point. I tend to be fairly myopic when times are tough and have a hard time accepting or even daydreaming it won't always be like it is now. SO...short answer: I wouldn't expect the MM-1000 to ever be up for sale. Plus, it upsets my wife when I talk about selling stuff...she knows better than I do at times how important it is to me, and has a hard time when I talk about getting rid of stuff she knows I don't really want to let go of.

I do think I'm going to try and simplify though...I have some multiples of rack gear that are unnecessary, and I think it would be healthy to just have one of each category of tape machine (i.e. multitrack machine and mastering machine). At present I have two multitrack machines (the MM-1000, and the Tascam 58) and two mastering machines (the 3M M-64 and the Tascam BR-20T). I'm pretty set on selling the BR-20T. Its a VERY nice machine...handles tape SO nicely, and has the timecode track which is neat but I don't know if it will ever be of practical use to me. I have a fully loaded TimeLine Micro Lynx (with spares to boot) that I've setup with the BR-20T and the system works so well...I had visions of sync'ing tape machines and DAW with the DAW as the master, but it was all really sort of a "just because" idea. I don't really have a practical need to do that. And yes the BR-20T has the rare RC-402 remote, upgraded headphone amp, recapped power supply, relapped heads and other new parts and is 100% functional...like...its a really good machine, ready to go...but it doesn't inspire me *at all* like the 3M machine...massive, overbuilt, discrete transformer coupled amps (huge transformers)...those ginormous VU meters...it is a freaking work-of-art-tank-of-a-machine, and I love that there is not one IC on the whole thing...all relay logic, through-hole discrete circuit design...as professional and simultaneously simple as it gets, and at the same time absolute genius transport design...so simple but exceptionally effective constant tension system and specs that still hold their own or surpass even the latest generation machines...dynamic braking...This is an almost 50 year old machine and its just pure genius. I have an affinity for that machine. No...it doesn't work yet and needs recapped blahblahblah...but it stirs me when I see it. I had one concern about it because the pinch rollers are so specialized and critical to the constant tension iso-loop system, and Terry Witt doesn't rebuild them for that reason and there are no new recent manufactured parts...And Athan didn't make the 1/4" or 1/2" roller set...until recently...they have them now...the polyurethane rollers brand new. So that kind of clinches it for me. So I think the BR-20T will go. I'm less sure about the MM-1000 vs. 58. The 58 can chase the DAW too using the Micro Lynx, and again that was always kind of a "just because" interest, but the only practical reason to have that ability for me is to track on tape and dump to DAW, but honestly I'm much more likely to track to the MM-1000 than the 58 anyway for sonic reasons, and the MM-1000 isn't going to be sync'ing with anything...so it really makes the 58 superfluous, BUT...the 58 is an operational, chronological and cosmetic match to my prototype Tascam 12x8 console...that's hard for me to split up...so I'm much less likely to let go of the 58 just for that reason.

 

[sweetbeats]

We still have the itch to see you work on it

Well...hahah...then I guess there's a lot of itchin' going on.



Thanks though...I'm glad others haven't given up on the Story.

 

[sweetbeats]

So this is a really minor update, but I have to share what feels to me like a total win.

I got these:



If you can’t tell, those are lamps. 28V clear bi-pin base lamps. These go to the VU meters in the amplifier electronics modules. So what? Well, the original Sylvania 24PC lamps have been unobtanium for many, many years, and so all manner of crazy kludgey solutions have been concocted. Replacing with LEDs is what most end up doing, but it’s all a bit of work because of how the originals mounted and/or because they are actually powered by throttled 39VDC power. And for guys like me who much prefer the glow of incandescent lamps particularly for the meters, well, LEDs just aren’t the ticket. It’s gnawed at the back of my brain how I was going to deal with this on my MM-1000 and furthermore just not really looking forward to the labor...but then...a fellow MM-1000 owner tipped me off to an eBay listing for these Dialco lamps that are compatible...NOS...when you can find these lamps they typically go for stupid money but what are you going to do. But these were being sold in packs of 10 for $10. I’m in. I bought 70. Nuts? That gives me enough to replace each pair of meter lamps twice and then some. Plus some of what I have in the electronics are still working. I’m set.

Anyway, MM-1000 project not dead, just on the back-burner.

 

[seankerns]

Little things like meter lights being out drive me nuts, even though the meters still work. I'm lucky for my JH24 to have Studio Electronics as a resource. I've gotten lamps for the meters and the status lights, and even a replacement for a missing red cap on one of the record buttons.

 

[sweetbeats]

Terrible…over five years since an update…I’ve mentioned little updates as parts of posts of other threads so some of you may be aware I of course still have the MM-1000, and it’s now in a relatively proper space that is also shared by the console and mastering deck…this may seem silly to you but it’s been quite a journey to get to this point…and the space affords the potential to actually work on the MM-1000, and my tools and diagnostic setup are in the same space too. So eventually there will be updates that include content centering around Matilda actually being powered up, and making progress to the end of actually pulling tape.

In the meantime I’m getting ready to send the 2” 16-track headblock assembly off to John French for an evaluation as well as have him install a set of rolling guides to replace the stationary guides. These are the guides produced by David at Thin Brown Line. David is very good people and he knows and understands the precision standard around which machines like the MM-1000 were designed and built…a standard that, IMO, is much more rare today. The MM-1000 is not a sophisticated machine. But the engineering standards for the tape path and other moving parts is stringent. So…not sophisticated, but…elegant. And beefy at the same time. So it’s important to maintain that if making changes. David understands that and these rolling guides are exquisite. And it’s not as simple as remove the stationary guides and fasten the rolling guides in their place…they have to be offset mounted to maintain the correct wrap angles on the heads…the rolling guides are much larger diameter than the stationary guides. And then on the outgoing guide the base has precision machining to avoid the guide obscuring access to one of the headblock mounting bolts, and to avoid interfering with the head gate retaining spring. Anyway, a minimum proper thing to do when changing any guiding surfaces is to have the guides mounted by a professional that can set it up with as little change to the tape geometry…so I’m sending it all to John French to do that…evaluate the heads and install the guides and align it as close as possible to the pre-existing wear and geometry.

 

[sweetbeats]

Many moons later the 2” assembly is back from JRF and installed on the transport, fully inspected and lined up, new Thin Brown Line rolling guides installed. I give you…analog eye-candy:

 

[sweetbeats]

I’ve continued to tinker here and there on the MM-1000…I’d started to write a lengthy post about all I’ve been doing on it, which amounts to a lot of detail work and resolutions related to issues with the tape path guides and getting the machine fully setup mechanically for both 1” and 2” operation, but part-way into that literary effort I just decided to capture and upload a video to YouTube…link below. I also made an unfortunate discovery regarding the reel idler roller assembly, which the video also details as well as what the path going forward is for that.

What the video doesn’t cover is some additional work-up on headblock assemblies. The one 2” 16-track assembly I have has been evaluated and setup by John French, as per my last post. As for 1” 8-track assemblies I have a total of three of them, as well as a bunch of parts to nearly put together a fourth, but only one of them has been evaluated and setup, and that’s the one with the essentially new AG-440C-8 heads and custom installed rolling guide detailed wayyyyyy earlier in this “Story.” The other two assemblies are comprised of the assembly that came with the MM-1000, a nice assembly with good looking i.e.m. heads, and another assembly with stock Ampex MM-1000 heads in it (equivalent to AG-440B-8 heads) in fair condition. Both assemblies’ scrape flutter idlers were in need of service, and they both needed evaluation and then whatever else from there. So I did some cleaning up on those and sent them off to John sometime in the last year, had the flutter idlers serviced, and had them both evaluated. The stock MM-1000 assembly has heads in not great shape…according to the inductance measurements maybe 25% life left on those, but John set it up as close as he could and it’s a good backup that’s now ready to go. The assembly with the i.e.m. heads…well, almost no wear on them, but, unfortunately, the head height was setup wrong on the reproduce head…though the wear was minimal, the only way to resolve that is a relap. I wanted it done right, so I had John relap the assembly, which required very little work because of the minimal wear…it’s all set now for the long-haul, and the inductance measurements came back still showing them as essentially new in spite of the relap. I’m going to call it 90% life remaining. Here’s the trio, the assembly with the ‘C’ heads in the foreground, the i.e.m. assembly in the middle, and the stock assembly in the background:

And now here’s that link to the video with updates on the rollers and guides:

 

[RFR]

Well, now isn’t that a handsome devil.