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Re: [ARSCLIST] Gates transcription turntable
It's hard to think of a good reason to spend any kind of money
restoring a Gates turntable. As a category, the performance of those
old rim-drive transcription turntables was much worse than later
direct-drive and belt-drive machines, and among the transcription
tables, the Gates turntables were notorious for rumble problems --
much worse than comparable turntables from Rek-o-cut, McCurdy, RCA or
Fairchild . They might have been okay for heavily-processed lo-fi AM
radio circa 1958, but most FM stations that cared about sound
quality got rid of them as soon as a practical alternative became available.
Even if you need a turntable that would play 16-inch transcriptions,
there are much better alternatives.
A lot of that old technology was indeed wonderful -- RCA ribbon
microphones, McIntosh tube amplifiers and so forth -- but Gates
turntables ain't in that category.
Gates Radio made a full line of radio studio equipment, from
turntables and consoles through to transmitters. It's my impression
that much of their market share was achieved through creative
financing of package deals -- buy everything from us and we will give
you a good price and affordable terms -- but they were never the
choice when quality was more important than price. Based in Quincy,
Illinois, they were widely known as "The Quincy Tin Works."
Disclaimer: I'm talking about their reputation in the 1960s and 70s.
Gates is still in business, but their designs and quality levels are
almost certainly better than they used to be.
John Ross
At 8/9/2005 02:59 PM, Dr. Cheryl Thurber wrote:
I am trying to find information about the Gates
transcription turntable. This is a radio station
turntable with a large platter. A few years ago when I
first got this I did an internet search and then had
communicated with someone in I believe NC who restores
these, and knew immediately which model I have and
information about it, and even had a manual. I was
wondering if anyone on this list might know the
person, or might know about the turntable. I am
probably going to sell this in the near future, since
I have not had the time to restore it, and it is very
large and heavy (I mounted it in cart so it moves
about and there is no pressure on the underside. I
live in the Baltimore area in case anyone is
interested when I do get around to selling it.) As I
looked for information recently I could not find much
about it. Gates seems to have been a key person in the
development of the transcription turntable. This
particular one had been in use in radio stations in
the south central PA, the last use was at a gospel
station according to the man I got it from.
We seem to focus so much lately on current technology
that we often forget about the importance of the
earlier equipment.
Any information would be appreciated.