Mic Pres in Vintage Cassette Players?

[cpsmusic]

Hi Folks,

As I mentioned in another thread, I'm currently clearing out my late-father's electronics workshop. He was a radio and HiFi guy and over the years amassed a large collection of stuff which I'm currently sorting through. I've come across 3 vintage cassette players, all of which have mic inputs on the front, but unfortunately otherwise aren't working. Electrically they seem OK (they light up, etc.) but it seems the mechanical parts have failed (probably the belts have perished).  Just wondering what the quality of the mic pres in these would be like? Would it be worth keeping them for the pres alone? Also, and for the guitarists here, I'm thinking about the infamous "Ritchie Blackmore Tape Machine" - how would these go as a front end for a JCM800 or Bassman? The actual units are:

Hitachi D-900
Teac V-1RX
Technics 676

Cheers,

Chris

 

[ruffrecords]

A lot depends on just how old they are. Early types like the Philips EL3302 were discrete transistor designs and the mic pre was a single transistor. Fast forward 10 years and you have a lot of designs based around a single integrated circuit which included all the recorder functions in one device.

As to how they sound, all I can tell you this. I recently saw a documentary in which Keith Richards described how they got the acoustic guitar sound at the start of Street Fighting Man. Keith demonstrated how he recorded his acoustic onto an old portable cassette machine (might even have been the EL3302) with the mic gain tuned up to max. The distortion and flutter you hear on the studio track is that cassette recording transferred across.

Cheers

Ian

 

[cpsmusic]

A lot depends on just how old they are. Early types like the Philips EL3302 were discrete transistor designs and the mic pre was a single transistor. Fast forward 10 years and you have a lot of designs based around a single integrated circuit which included all the recorder functions in one device.

As to how they sound, all I can tell you this. I recently saw a documentary in which Keith Richards described how they got the acoustic guitar sound at the start of Street Fighting Man. Keith demonstrated how he recorded his acoustic onto an old portable cassette machine (might even have been the EL3302) with the mic gain tuned up to max. The distortion and flutter you hear on the studio track is that cassette recording transferred across.

Cheers

Ian

Any idea what the name of the doco was?

 

[ruffrecords]

It was a Netflix original called Under The Influence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHh24Y9LrY0

Cheers

Ian

 

[DerEber]

Try it out!
Some old players have preamps that sound very interesting, some sound like crap.

You won´t get any  modern highend studio sound out of it, but maybe thats not what you want anyway.

best,
Stephan

 

[JohnRoberts]

Pretty safe that it will sound like crap... but at least you can brag that it is class A.  ;D

JR

 

[mjrippe]

I recall a brief period in the '90s where some indie/lo-fi/desperate bands would plug guitars into tape head or phono inputs of old stereo receivers to use them as amps.  Certainly had a unique sound...

 

[Whoops]

Some old players have preamps that sound very interesting, some sound like crap.

I think they will sound like crap but probably very interesting!

LOLOLOL

 

[Gene Pink]

I recall a brief period in the '90s where some indie/lo-fi/desperate bands would plug guitars into tape head or phono inputs of old stereo receivers to use them as amps.  Certainly had a unique sound...

The '90s? Hell, I had 'em beat by over a decade. 1/4"  guitar input jack, normalled to the tape head amps on the 8-track in my '65 Mustang.

Unique sound? The sound of guitar through tape head amps in near-square-wave coming through the back side of a pair of 6X9s with the trunk open, has to be heard to be believed. And that is most definitely not an endorsement. But it was fun.

Gene

And whaddya know, packrat that I am, a jpeg:

 

[mjrippe]

Craig and Sparkomatic!  Nice.  Were you playing a '65 Fender Mustang through that '65 Mustang?

 

[abbey road d enfer]

Hi Folks,

As I mentioned in another thread, I'm currently clearing out my late-father's electronics workshop. He was a radio and HiFi guy and over the years amassed a large collection of stuff which I'm currently sorting through. I've come across 3 vintage cassette players, all of which have mic inputs on the front, but unfortunately otherwise aren't working. Electrically they seem OK (they light up, etc.) but it seems the mechanical parts have failed (probably the belts have perished).  Just wondering what the quality of the mic pres in these would be like? Would it be worth keeping them for the pres alone? Also, and for the guitarists here, I'm thinking about the infamous "Ritchie Blackmore Tape Machine" - how would these go as a front end for a JCM800 or Bassman? The actual units are:

Hitachi D-900
Teac V-1RX
Technics 676

Cheers,

Chris

Without knowing the specifics of the mentioned machines, they all have in common a rather low input impedance (typically 1-5k) and tend to saturate early.
Confronted with the impedance of an electric guitar, which is rather high and dominantly inductive, the result is some kind of a rounded square-wave, which may appeal to some.
As for using them as GP mic preamps, in addition to not being balanced, don't expect them to have any significant headroom.

 

[gar381]

I own a Teac V-1RX.  The belts are shot so its sitting in the store room.
This is the nicest sounding cassette deck I have ever heard bar none.
I never used the mic pres in it but I would bet they are very nice sounding
for an old consumer machine.  Give it a listen and see what you think.

Best

GARY