M
briank
analog for the people!
Well I AM a fan of MCI tape machines and enjoyed the video. As a complete-but-willing-to-learn novice, I "pimped" our JH110 8-track last year doing much of what Chris talks about in the video--resoldering all the Molexes on the audio and transport motherboards, PSU chimney board, transport daughtercards and audio cards and giving things a good cleaning...also sorted out a grumpy tension servo system (with generous help from folks on this and the MCI forum) and gave it a full top to bottom transport cal and aligned the audio for Quantegy 499 at 15ips. Did a few songs at +6 but think I'll stick with +9 in the future. Will try ATR when I'm out of 499. I'd like to recap the PSU and audio cards next. If I have luck with chip upgrades in my MCI console I may give 'em a shot in the JH110, who knows. Too bad that being an 8-track deck, the idea of keeping spare drawers for alternate calibrations (or spares) isn't an option, no open slots on this bad boy (buying four more drawers would get pricey anyway!) I know Chris likes those fancy gold painted deck plates on his refurbs (or black in this vid), but I don't think they look "right," just my opinion or course.
Shucks, that 2-track machine looks like a joy to refurb compared to our 8 track which is...hang on, let me get my calculator out here...four times as big a pain in the nuts to resolder
These are great sounding, solid machines once you catch up on the maintenance, big and warm and punchy, I've really enjoyed our 8 track as has everyone I've tracked to it so far and I hope to continue to use it as much as I can get away with. I'd LOVE an MCI 2" machine in the future, especially with a 16 track headstack, oooo yummy A JH110 2-track mixdown deck would be stellar too, or an Ampex...ah well, one of these days!
Nice vid, thanks for sharing this!
Shucks, that 2-track machine looks like a joy to refurb compared to our 8 track which is...hang on, let me get my calculator out here...four times as big a pain in the nuts to resolder
These are great sounding, solid machines once you catch up on the maintenance, big and warm and punchy, I've really enjoyed our 8 track as has everyone I've tracked to it so far and I hope to continue to use it as much as I can get away with. I'd LOVE an MCI 2" machine in the future, especially with a 16 track headstack, oooo yummy
A JH110 2-track mixdown deck would be stellar too, or an Ampex...ah well, one of these days! Nice vid, thanks for sharing this!
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