Picked up an old fixer-upper today!!

[Dr.Mavashi]

Re: Picked up an old fixer-upper today!!

the guy who invented fire, B_Bent,
Is this the model, AIWA, that Richie used if not how close is it to "the one"?

 

[The Golden Boy]

Re: Picked up an old fixer-upper today!!

These things take the same size tape as an 8 track tape?

Today I was at 2 resale shops with an impressive collection of 8 track tapes...

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Picked up an old fixer-upper today!!

Yeah, it's not exactly like a cassette but I couldn't think of another way to easily explain it.
I know a guy who owns three tube Echoplexes & they have variable tape speed. Modded I guess? He had them all rebuilt/restored several years ago.
I've only really been exposed to his arsenal... For the most part the only other 'plexes I've come across have been run into ground.

The tube Plex's I've seen didn't have variable speed motors...I knwo that Mike Fuller puts a 2 speed motor on the Fulltone TTE to get the deal time up past the stock Echoplex 650 ms but I have never seen a real Plex with anything more than a one speed motor.

Most Plex's have ben run into the dirt and are massive money pits...they need new tapes, new heads, new motors, new belts and then after all that most of them are pretty rough looking as well...I got very lucky with mine...it looks great and sounds even better!

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Picked up an old fixer-upper today!!

the guy who invented fire, B_Bent,
Is this the model, AIWA, that Richie used if not how close is it to "the one"?

Blackmore used an old Aiwa reel to reel that he modified to be able to use not only as an echo unit but because the Aiwa was made to be used as a recorder it had built in preamps and Richie would use those preamps to overdrive the front end of his Marshalls a bit.

So, while you could use a plex for the echo half of the Blackmore tone that plex lacks the ability to really drive the front end of your amp into distortion.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Picked up an old fixer-upper today!!

These things take the same size tape as an 8 track tape?
Today I was at 2 resale shops with an impressive collection of 8 track tapes...

I belive the tape might be the same width but the quality of most of the tape in an 8 track is not the quality that I would want to use to be constantly recording and re recording on over and over again. Tapes for plex's are getting hard to find and are also getting expensive not to mention that the only real source form them right now is Mike Fuller but he refuses to sell to someone that owns an Echoplex...you can only buy a TTE tape if you own a TTE. You can rewind old tapes if you know how so Im not worried about it too much.

 

[Artie]

Re: Picked up an old fixer-upper today!!

I belive the tape might be the same width but the quality of most of the tape in an 8 track is not the quality that I would want to use to be constantly recording and re recording on over and over again. Tapes for plex's are getting hard to find and are also getting expensive not to mention that the only real source form them right now is Mike Fuller but he refuses to sell to someone that owns an Echoplex...you can only buy a TTE tape if you own a TTE. You can rewind old tapes if you know how so Im not worried about it too much.

I'm not positive, but I believe that its ordinary 1/4" tape. Open it up to verify. If it is, just buy a roll of reel-to-reel tape and some splicing tape, and just roll your own.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Picked up an old fixer-upper today!!

I'm not positive, but I believe that its ordinary 1/4" tape. Open it up to verify. If it is, just buy a roll of reel-to-reel tape and some splicing tape, and just roll your own.

It is just 1/4 tape but IM not sure what size the tape in an 8 track is...

 

[Jimbo Jr.]

Re: Picked up an old fixer-upper today!!

How often schould you replace the tape in something like that? It's bound to get worn out sometime.

 

[tone4days]

Re: Picked up an old fixer-upper today!!

Blackmore used an old Aiwa reel to reel that he modified to be able to use not only as an echo unit but because the Aiwa was made to be used as a recorder it had built in preamps and Richie would use those preamps to overdrive the front end of his Marshalls a bit.

So, while you could use a plex for the echo half of the Blackmore tone that plex lacks the ability to really drive the front end of your amp into distortion.

hey christian, wasnt ritchie actually overdriving the tape unit itself to provide the distortion? ... i seem to recal reading an interview where he described it that way ... in other words, he wasnt overdriving the marshall front end ... the signal already had the 'distorted' harmonic content from the tape unit when it hit the amp .. no?