Re: [ARSCLIST] Need help with a Revox A77 [?] in Chicago

[Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

dumb question #4 -- are you sure none of tapes are sticky-shed and thus gumming up the works?

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Lennick" <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, April 07, 2007 12:31 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Need help with a Revox A77 [?] in Chicago


> Dumb question #1: Have you cleaned the heads?
>
> Dumb question #2: Did Herr Gefixmann replace the heads? May be just an alignmnent problem.
>
> Dumb question #3: Any chance that the tapes (or some of them) are being threaded with the oxide 
> out instead of in?
>
> dl
>
> Paul Tyler wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I'm hoping someone can help an electronic ignoramus.  Here's the story.  I have a hundred and 
> > fifty open reel tapes I recorded twenty five years ago that I've been trying to digitize.  Most 
> > are field recordings I made on a Nagra on loan from the American Folklife Center or on a Revox 
> > B77 (I'm unsure of the exact model number) owned by a then brand new public radio station in Fort 
> > Wayne.  The restof the tapes are the 26 one-hour radio shows I produced using my field 
> > recordings.  After that gig ran it's course, I was left with the tapes and no machine.  The 
> > original field recordings are in the Archives of Traditional Music at Indiana University, and 
> > what I have are earliest copies dubbed on the ATM's Ampex decks.
> >
> > Fast forward twenty years and I bought a Revox A77 on eBay and started dubbing my field tapes in 
> > my spare time.  Somewhere along the way my preschool daughter filched a light bulb out the 
> > Revox--I don't know what you call it but it was for a light activated shutoff.  I took the Revox 
> > to 20th Century Stereo on the north side.  The elderly European-accented proprietor ended doing 
> > $300 worth of repairs and adjustments.  This was two years ago, and I'm just now getting back to 
> > dubbing my tapes.  But they don't sound the same.  I don't have the technical vocabulary to 
> > describe the sound difference.  The clarity is gone.  It sounds like my recordings have gone 
> > through some sort of filter that distances the sound.  Another description:  the loss of clarity 
> > sounds like what happens when you dub cassettes on cheap portable decks from 1980.
> >
> > Can anybody offer any help?   Like what kind of words I should use if I take it back to the old 
> > German guy.  Or do you know any other good repairman (or woman) in the Chicago area I could 
> > consult. Thank you
> > Paul Tyler