My ald ampex got The Head :) ...some photos here

[Dr ZEE]

Hi guys, just wanted to share with you some photos for fun.
An update on my ampex project.
So I was on "the mission" of adding vu meters, but ended up with some 'unusual' stand-alone unit, which I'm not sure what to call It's kind of cool thing, though.
It all based on parts from older akai GXC-510D cassette deck. And it can be used as two channel line/mic preamp or as VU meters, it has head-phones out also.
So here's a photo of my ampex machine now.
Next I finally can get to fine wood-work finishing... (to improve the sound, of course )

 

[cjacek]

That's truly one of the nicest jobs I've seen. Bravo!

 

[Dr ZEE]

here's the vu/preamp unit photo alone

 

[Dr ZEE]

here's another photo

 

[cjacek]

All I can say is WOW!!

 

[Dr ZEE]

i'm actually "soooooooooooo proud" of the green-eye pilot inside "design" ...lol, seriously, I've made up a special metalic reflector/tube...so the lamp is not inside the plastic cup, but about an inch behind, and it looks really cool in person...

 

[Dr ZEE]

Daniel, thank you , Man
I actually had a grate time mixed with headache while doing this... and really only God knows what for i'm doing it. My wife, sure, thinks I'm losing it... sort of //// lol

here, I'm going to post couple of inside shots, to show what's left from the the akai deck and how it all sits in the box after few days of surgery, wood and metal cutting and flanging and screwing around
here's inside photo:
(from tech point, without going into details, you can think of this "unit" as akai cassette-deck being permanently set in pause/rec mode , minus all the tape-related parts/blocks and some other related mods around)

 

[Dr ZEE]

another inside photo.
I also have made many photos in details (from the start)... I hope, after I'm done with all final wood-finishing and stuff, when ever I get time, I'll set up some pages at website, so anybody, who may be interested in this diy stuff, could browse through.

 

[SteveMac]

Whoah, that is way cool Zee. Nice job!

 

[A Reel Person]

Zee,...

with as much as I don't "get" your allusions to "tangential" stuff and info related to recording,... and I don't necessarily agree with certain hard & fast points you've made in posts,...

I look at this,... and I bow in awe to your awesome analog gear-ness!! Man,... I could come up with numerous gear "fixit" projects for you, (and related mods), if only you were a local entity!

2 words:
GOSH!- WOW!

 

[Dr ZEE]

Whoah, that is way cool Zee. Nice job!

Steve! HI
thanks a bunch
How are your silver-faced sonys doing ? any achivements with them in 'action' ... meaning in recording
I'm actually asking this, because I've got a question for myself, while playing with all this: "OK, this is kinda' fun, but what about actually recording music?" ..heh heh Time is limited, you know what I mean...

 

[Dr ZEE]

with as much as I don't "get" your allusions to "tangential" stuff and info related to recording,... and I don't necessarily agree with certain hard & fast points you've made in posts,...

I look at this,... and I bow in awe to your awesome analog gear-ness!! Man,... I could come up with numerous gear "fixit" projects for you, (and related mods), if only you were a local entity!

2 words:
GOSH!- WOW!

Dave! Thank you, man.
There also couple things I have to say... hah hah,
Ready? ... ...lol
First of all I am not sure that I am actually 'fixing' anything here per say ... I break more things on the way than I get at the end ... well, sort of
And as for "tangentialism"... hah hah, I'd say this: "The one who can't really think straight got no other choice, but being a "tangentialist". And, so being as what I am,,,,, tangentially speaking, or better say "tonguentially speaking", I can tell you this: "Even 'locally' I'm not exacly a 'local entity'." so, there

oh, and, I think that tangentiality is never absolute, but rather always relative

anyhow... I'm just freaking around... nothing serious ever (Never! underestimate Mr.Green on my avatar. He's there for a purpose.)
thanks again
/respects

 

[Herm]

Z thats pretty cool. And as far as tangentiall. Hell I dont even know what that means.

 

[A Reel Person]

!!!

..."tonguentially speaking", .../respects

Yeah,... that!!

 

[Dr ZEE]

Z thats pretty cool.

THANKS!

And as far as tangentiall. Hell I dont even know what that means.

ROFL! This is actually freakin' funny
Here:
TANGENTIAL
NOT TANGENTIAL

 

[Beck]

Double Dog Wow! Nice work!

And I can't even give you anymore good reps right now, because its too soon. Will everyone give Zee some good rep? Who the hell put him in the red anyway?

 

[SteveMac]

Steve! HI
thanks a bunch
How are your silver-faced sonys doing ? any achivements with them in 'action' ... meaning in recording
I'm actually asking this, because I've got a question for myself, while playing with all this: "OK, this is kinda' fun, but what about actually recording music?" ..heh heh Time is limited, you know what I mean...

Well, yeah. The SRA3 sounds great. I ordered one of those in line attenuators you directed me to. Waited 2 weeks for it to come and then they told me they were on back order. So I found one on ebay and I am waiting on that. I kind of need it to use the SM81 on drums with the lo Z inputs on the Sony.

I also discovered that that weird high pitch noise doesn't affect the Roland digital recorder. ????? It get's weirder because the inputs work as both outputs and inputs and vise versa , it gets pretty confusing. But using it to mix down to the Roland it sounds pretty damn good. I like it.

 

[cjacek]

Will everyone give Zee some good rep? Who the hell put him in the red anyway?

My thoughts exactly ...

 

[Dr ZEE]

Double Dog Wow! Nice work!

And I can't even give you anymore good reps right now, because its too soon. Will everyone give Zee some good rep? Who the hell put him in the red anyway?

HUH! Thank you, Tim
as for rep thing, I'd say my rep is perfectly justified. This ain't wood-workshop board the last time I've checked , not to mention that "real-Pros" rule the "club" here

speaking of 'woodwork'... while performing the surgery I've found couple of AKAI's engineer's "stitch-holes" in the design, and then with a few simple "knife-swings" and "hammer-bangs" have managed to improved line preamp's performance noise-wise , mic's ins are pretty noisy at high gain still... I kind of gave it up.
anyways... after all it's all just fun stuff as I see it.
........
But guys! Did I mention?. (I think I did in some other thread..., that this AMPEX machine (btw, it's model 1260 ... or 950 ...which I am not sure about and can not find out 100% info..., other similar models are (if I'm not mistaken) 960 and then later and somewhat improved similar model was F-44, which also I believe was the last tube machine for consumer market) sounds absolutely amaizing. I was just "performing" some simplest recording check tests... by recording from cd and I was using quantegy GP-9 tape (I 'd guess not "the right" tape ..heh heh) .... and the result I am getting while A/B-ing from CD-playback to tape-out while recording - the sound on tape is actually 'better' then the source CD - so now I actually could advise David Gilmour on how in very simple way to improve his "On An Island" album master (subjectively of course heh heh). But the recording is nice and clear to say the least.
Well, blah blah... my point is, that those machines, which may look like junk aren't junk at all, really... well, if you can get it running to begin with, of course, . The mechanical design and parts there, I must say, is something else ...lol..., but it is all cool in a relative way - one may actually enjoy the feel of operating an industrial plant style machine while recording... . The motor is pretty noisy itself ... that's for sure, - not good, but it's 'ignorable', if you do not demand absolute silence in the recording room. (that's why you need to add a nice large switch to turn the motor off if desired). But tubes rules, period.
**********

Steve!, keep me updated on how your experience with SRAs going... when ever you get a moment. Keep it up.

thanks for checking , again, guys
/respects

 

[SteveMac]

Mike, your design reminded me of this teac I had to restrain myself from bidding on. If it were a little closer I know I would have to have bid on it.

But tubes rules, period.

Tubes DO rule. I've found those little preamps they sell these days to "warm up" digital pretty useless though. It's not like they used to make em. Today you'd have to spend a grand to get something new that actually qualifies.