Analog teaser.....

  • Thread starter Thread starter miroslav
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miroslav

miroslav

Cosmic Cowboy
Earlier this evening I was standing in this room...eat your hearts out! :D

Sonicraft2012-Home_12.webp

This is the website: http://www.sonicraft.com/
It's an analog tape to digital transfer service studio...not a recording studio, but man just look at all those tape decks! :cool:
They had pretty much any/every tape format, and in some cases more than one of each. Lots of Ampex machines, of every variety.

The reason I was there was to pick up a Fostex G-16 deck that they were selling, because they require very tight tolerances in the calibration due to the nature of their business, once a deck's electronics start to get a little flaky for perfect adjustment, the deck is of no use to them if it can't be almost perfect...otherwise the deck I got from them is still functional, just not perfect. The head guy (Steve) has rebuilt and recondition most of the decks you see in the picture...so the guy knows his tape decks.

I already own a Fostex G-16, and my deck is in almost mint condition compared to the one I picked up tonight, which is only going to be my parts donor machine if anything breaks on my deck...and if/when I need to recap any of the cards, I will have spares in the mean time.
Got it for $250 and a few hours of driving to pick it up and back. :)
 
Just the sight of that room is droolworthy !
 
Dang, that's a nice price for a "less then perfect" 16 track....
 
Don't get me wrong...it's not "almost perfect". There are some cosmetic scuffs and rack rash, probably needs new rubber...and it was sitting for awhile, so I'm sure the electronics are off, but overall and compared to my own G-16, the heads, guides look almost as clean as mine, the reel motors feel as smooth...so for the price, I will be able to get a lot parts out of it and hopefully keep my G-16 running in good shape for another 10-15...maybe 20 years.

The seller (Steve) said that if I was to recap the cards, it would be good for another 20 years...and he did compliment the G-16 transport, said it was one of the best in small-format decks. He also uses TASCAM decks, and the main reason he finds them more beneficial is because he can still get a lot of parts through TASCAM, whereas Fostex has long ago run out of stuff for their tape decks. :(
I bought up a bunch of new parts from Fostex about 8-9 years ago...and even then they said they didn't have too many parts left in stock and when they were gone...that was it.
With this second deck and the parts I bought from Fostex...I'm pretty confident I'll have my G-16 spinning for a long time. :)
 
Steve runs the Scully group and is a real stand-up guy ... he's helped me out many times.
 
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