tablebeast
Well-known member
I recently got my hands on a very nice, unmolested, and all-original Wollensak reel to reel. Model T-1980, "The Sound Room". It takes 7" reels, runs 7.5 and 3.75 ips, and only sort of portable. Its the second one I've had. The first was one of my very first scores, before I knew better. I bought it for cheap at a ham radio convention in the 2000s and promptly hacked it up for parts recycling, not appreciating what it already was. I soon realized that I should have just cleaned it up and recorded with it, because these things are so versatile and no nonsense, as-is! I've been looking for another one for cheap ever since, so I know how rarely they turn up. The way more portable, mostly mono Wollensak T-1500 series decks are easy enough to find (and often still work), but they aren't nearly as sweet as this baby. Someone gave me this fine example and I'm really looking forward to restoring it and adding a few mods... So yeah, I'll wax on about it a LOT more on my discord, if you're interested.
There was no schematic readily available online. I bought a copy of the Sams and scanned it for you guys to follow along. I will eventually get the whole service manual up, but I figured I'd start with this. My plans are simple. I want to use it to record live to 2 track and also do single track overdubs, since it does "sound with sound" (meaning the record and playback heads are the SAME head). Whether it be with its own set of mics or at the end of a mixer or DAW, I have big plans for it as a recorder/playback/processor and as a small PA. From what I understand these things are nearly bulletproof as long as they are maintained. So I'm going to start there before I mod too much. Its losing the death cap and getting a grounded three prong socket before I even plug it in. Then a deoxit bath of all connections, a clean/demag/lube of the transport, tube test and a variac revival should be the first order of business. I'll update once I've done that. Here is the schem for anyone curious.
There was no schematic readily available online. I bought a copy of the Sams and scanned it for you guys to follow along. I will eventually get the whole service manual up, but I figured I'd start with this. My plans are simple. I want to use it to record live to 2 track and also do single track overdubs, since it does "sound with sound" (meaning the record and playback heads are the SAME head). Whether it be with its own set of mics or at the end of a mixer or DAW, I have big plans for it as a recorder/playback/processor and as a small PA. From what I understand these things are nearly bulletproof as long as they are maintained. So I'm going to start there before I mod too much. Its losing the death cap and getting a grounded three prong socket before I even plug it in. Then a deoxit bath of all connections, a clean/demag/lube of the transport, tube test and a variac revival should be the first order of business. I'll update once I've done that. Here is the schem for anyone curious.
