Can anyone offer help with this old DGC Hare 7ch EQ?

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SPG

Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2009
Messages
22
Location
NYC, the place to be.
Hi guys/gals,

A while ago I picked up this interesting 7 channel EQ unit made by the DGC Hare company sometime in the mid 50s (I believe-a piece of masking tape on the top indicates it was calibrated in 1958!).  From the research I've done, pretty much all I can find out is the DGC Hare Co. went on to become Grass Valley.  It has a single 1/4" jack for each channel and because of this small detail I've made the assumption that this unit was most likely part of a modular console setup, designed to be inserted between the input amp and the channel output or possibly into the feedback loop of the input amp itself (kind of like the UA 508 worked with the 1008 and 1108 units).  Each channel has a 5751 and a 5814A (a 12AX7 and a 12AU7, more or less), along with a Triad A-55J output transformer.  I'm dying to get this thing up and running, and was hoping one of the many minds here might have some helpful info or ideas for me as the internet is completely devoid of anything useful.  Granted I can just build the power supply and start dicking around, but I figured ask around here before I started that fun process just in case someone knew something.  Anyway, here's a few pics:







Anyway, thanks for taking a look at my post.  Any help or info from you guys would be greatly appreciated.

 
Just figured I'd bump this to see if anyone with a good memory might have some info that could help me out before I start tearing this thing apart.  I still have hope that one of you guys might be able to help push me in the right direction on this sucker.  If not, well hey-at least I tried.  Thanks for taking a peek anyway and I'll post some inside pics just for the hell of it once I get around to cracking it open.
 
I worked as a general assistant for the DGC Hare Company during the summer of 1951 or 1952. It was a small research and development firm, located at (30?) Burtis Avenue, New Canaan, CT. The founder/owner was Dr. Donald G. C. Hare. I believe he was a physicist. The company was housed in a one-story addition connected to a large machine shop of Fairty Machine. Employees included a secretary, approximately six technicians/engineers, and two or three general helpers. The Dr. and his technical people worked on a variety of projects, including a good deal of testing and research on semiconductors (classified studies, I think, for the US Navy). The equipment you have may have been part of a seven-channel high fidelity sound system created for Fairchild for a surrounding installation in CinemaScope movie theaters. The first units, at least, were manufactured and tested in the small Hare workshop. My own duties were varied. I ran errands, driving Dr. Hare's green and white Ford convertible; I cleaned toilets (on weekends), made drip coffee with Chemex glass flasks, swept floors, ran the Ozalid print machine, prepared packages for shipment, and helped fabricate hardware components in the shop. One day I was using a drill press in the shop, taking miniature vacuum tube sockets and expanding the center hole in each socket by pushing it up under a spinning 1/4" drill bit. When one of the sockets seized in the drill, the drill bit passed clear through the end of my left index finger! I didn't realize the extent of the injury until a couple of technicians, Warner Eliot and Frank Richardson, chased after me and my trail of blood. Dr. Hare had a short temper now and then, but was pretty casual most of the time. Once he showed me a prototype of an antiaircraft proximity fuse he had invented, during WII, I think. It was a good job, and possibly influenced my becoming an industrial designer years later.
 
Jean Clochet said:
ahawth said:
I worked as a general assistant for the DGC Hare Company during the summer of 1951 or 1952. It was a small research and development firm...

I liked this story.  Thank you for coming here and telling your experiences :)

Indeed! posts like that are priceless.

Greetings,

Thomas
 
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