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thadjanus
Guest
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 Posted:
Wed Nov 02, 2005 5:20 am Post subject:
Webcor Regent Stereo Lite question... |
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My Grandfather has been wanting to give me his Webcor for quite some
time now. I took the manual home and it looks rather cool. Seems to be
a 2 track possibly 4 not sure has a synch track switch. I have just
been putting it off because I haven't had room until now. Last weekend
my daughter and I were over his house and he had it hooked up and we
let my daughter rock it so the speakers were on and she could scream
"check one two!!" into the mic. Sounded really nice actually..she
screams check one two into everything. It's probably my fault , at
first my wife and I thought it was cute, but it's a bit much when she
leans over the toaster and yells into the toast slot.she's 2...anyways
anybody mess around with these old reel to reels? Is there other less
obvious uses you've found for them? Maybe as a line amp or
effect..anything really. It is from 1963 and he has kept it immaculate.
Ultimately I am going to record a song on it for him as a suprise but
not sure after that..I guess I could play all his old slovak/polish
polka reels which are part of the deal.I just thought I'd post and see
because I'm sure a few people here have owned one in there lifetime and
maybe have tinkered with them..
Brian
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Mark
Guest
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| Posted:
Wed Nov 02, 2005 5:42 am Post subject:
Re: Webcor Regent Stereo Lite question... |
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thadjanus wrote:
| Quote: | My Grandfather has been wanting to give me his Webcor for quite some
time now. I took the manual home and it looks rather cool. Seems to be
a 2 track possibly 4 not sure has a synch track switch. I have just
been putting it off because I haven't had room until now. Last weekend
my daughter and I were over his house and he had it hooked up and we
let my daughter rock it so the speakers were on and she could scream
"check one two!!" into the mic. Sounded really nice actually..she
screams check one two into everything. It's probably my fault , at
first my wife and I thought it was cute, but it's a bit much when she
leans over the toaster and yells into the toast slot.she's 2...anyways
anybody mess around with these old reel to reels? Is there other less
obvious uses you've found for them? Maybe as a line amp or
effect..anything really. It is from 1963 and he has kept it immaculate.
Ultimately I am going to record a song on it for him as a suprise but
not sure after that..I guess I could play all his old slovak/polish
polka reels which are part of the deal.I just thought I'd post and see
because I'm sure a few people here have owned one in there lifetime and
maybe have tinkered with them..
Brian
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Brain,
I think that's the same type of Webcor I had as a kid.
It plays back in stero but can record only in mono, correct?
Has the green eye for level?
Crystal hi Z mic?
A couple of 6BQ5's, one for each channel , class A.
3 speeds. 1 7/8 3 3/4 7 1/2
it can playback one ch and simulataneously record the other for sound
with sound
I remember it pretty well.
What do you want to know about it?
Mark |
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Daniel Fox
Guest
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| Posted:
Wed Nov 02, 2005 5:42 am Post subject:
Re: Webcor Regent Stereo Lite question... |
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thadjanus wrote:
at
| Quote: | first my wife and I thought it was cute, but it's a bit much when she
leans over the toaster and yells into the toast slot.she's 2...
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Thats pretty cute. OT but I have a 16 month old son who thoroughly
enjoys sitting on the floor with a little Behringer mixer plugging a
1/4" patch cord in and out of the jacks. And if you put him in front
of a keyboard he'll twiddle knobs and sliders (and pull them off) but
ignore the actual piano keys. Yeah... what do I expect?
Dan Fox |
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Mark
Guest
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| Posted:
Thu Nov 03, 2005 5:42 am Post subject:
Re: Webcor Regent Stereo Lite question... |
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Scott Dorsey wrote:
| Quote: | thadjanus <vivacaramel@hotmail.com> wrote:
Mark that's the one. I guess my first question would be what tape to
buy as far as current production. What was used with it were scotch
brand reels and I'm not sure ont the biasing. 499 or 456 or something
else.
These machines won't even come close to biasing 456, and I would strongly
suspect that you don't have much control over bias anyway. Try using a
red oxide tape like 641.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
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yeah, its a consumer machine, bias not adjustable and EQ was such that
I'd just use whatever tape sounds best on it...
if i recall in ch 1 play mode it would take the "left track" and feed
it to both speakers, in ch 2 play mode, the right track is fed to both
speakers and in stereo mode L to L and R to R.
One of the things that really bugged me about that machine (it is a low
grade consumer unit) is that the take up reel runs via a friction
drive off the capstain motor, and as the reel fills up and turns
slower, it would load the motor a bit more and the speed would slow a
bit.. It was only a few percent but I was a kid trying to learn how
these things worked and it bugged me.
I really appreciated the Viking 88 I got next which was a 2 motor
machine and had a seperate motor for ff and take up.
Have fun.. Mark |
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Scott Dorsey
Guest
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| Posted:
Thu Nov 03, 2005 5:42 am Post subject:
Re: Webcor Regent Stereo Lite question... |
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Mark <makolber@yahoo.com> wrote:
| Quote: | yeah, its a consumer machine, bias not adjustable and EQ was such that
I'd just use whatever tape sounds best on it...
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Bias probably _is_ adjustable, but it might be adjustable by detuning
a tank circuit, which is pretty close to not being adjustable.
One way a lot of people used to bias these things was by taking pink
noise from an FM radio, and adjust the bias up and down until the input
and output sounded the same. This gives you the flattest possible
response, not the lowest distortion or lowest modulation noise. Another
way is to adjust for a peak on a 1KC tone, which will give you lowest
distortion but not flattest possible response.
Since tape availability is pretty limited today, use whatever red oxide
(185 nW/m) tape you can find. I think Quantegy is only making one now.
| Quote: | One of the things that really bugged me about that machine (it is a low
grade consumer unit) is that the take up reel runs via a friction
drive off the capstain motor, and as the reel fills up and turns
slower, it would load the motor a bit more and the speed would slow a
bit.. It was only a few percent but I was a kid trying to learn how
these things worked and it bugged me.
|
ALL of the single-motor machines were like this. Some of them, like the
Tandberg 64, had fancy mechanical braking arrangements to minimize it,
but they all did it, and it was always a nightmare trying to edit takes
since a take at the end of a reel would be a different pitch than one
at the beginning.
| Quote: | I really appreciated the Viking 88 I got next which was a 2 motor
machine and had a seperate motor for ff and take up.
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I think my first machine was an Aiwa TP801, which got around these
problems by having an enormous vacuum cleaner motor driving the
capstan. The top plate got hot enough to burn you.
--scott
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"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." |
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Peter Larsen
Guest
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| Posted:
Sat Nov 12, 2005 5:09 am Post subject:
Re: Webcor Regent Stereo Lite question... |
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thadjanus wrote:
| Quote: | not sure after that..I guess I could play all his old
slovak/polish polka reels which are part of the deal.
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Play as in "transfer to CD and give him" could make sense, and could
preserve something that is not easy to refind. Your family might
appreciate that preservation of heritage very much.
Kind regards
Peter Larsen
--
*******************************************
* My site is at: http://www.muyiovatki.dk *
******************************************* |
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