Of course if you NEED a machine right now, you're going to pay a lot
more than if you can wait until a better deal happens....
I can't answer a lot of emails - and I already get a ton of emails every day!!!
And if you've bought a machine recently, let me know what
you paid (that is if you got a really good deal on it!!!)
Also note that any machine that's been
checked out and aligned by a good honest tech
is worth a LOT more than an "As-Is" unchecked machine.
I've run into too many machines sold "As-Is' that have required hundreds and hundreds
of dollars worth of repairs which turned a "good" deal into a "bad" deal.
So always look for a "Checked Out" (by a good tech !!!) machine
even if it's a higher price, or hire a good tech to look over any machine
you're thinking of getting. A tech can't 'guarantee' a machine,
but at least he can spot major problems and give you an educated assessment
of the machine's true condition... well worth paying for!!!
As everyone knows Analogue Multi-Track Recorders are dropping in Price.
Many of the machines listed on the "Current Sales" page link were bought
1 or 2 years ago when the market was better than it is now (2020).
You should be able to purchase a good recorder cheaper or as cheap
than the list shows...
It's a buyer's market, bargain hard!
2 brands of machines - used that is - are cheap AND still performing solidly:
the STUDER machines (the A-827 is to be greatly preferred) and the later OTARI machines.
MCI and Ampex machines are getting old now, but can often still perform and sound great !
First off you need to decide between 16 tracks or 24 track.
Myself, I would go 24 track since you could possibly find get a 16 track headstack and then
record either 24 or 16 track as the need arises.
Plus the sound defference between the 24 track and 16 track machines is very very minor.
Most of the records you love from the 1970's thru the late 1990's were recorded on 24 track machines,
often without using Dolby noise reduction!
Note that it is near impossible to upgrade a machine from a 16 track to a 24 track machine unless for some reason it's already to go.
You can't find the card-bays, the Control Boxes and so on, so it's just not worth the time and effort to add in those extra 8 channels at a later date.
You can always buy a 24 track and use it with 16 track heads!
Tips for Buying a machine....
The FIRST thing you want is to establish is if the machine has been in frequent and current use.
Any machine in current use has to be in somewhat good shape or they couldn't use it for recording.
Too often I get repair calls for machines that have sat unused for 2 or more years -
one recent machine had not even been turned on for over 5 years!
A machine that sits is prone to causing all sorts of problems, from corroded relay contacts, corroded switches and even locked motors.
In all cases the motor bearings are not meant to just sit in one position for long lengths of time,
they're designed to rotate and spread the pressure points and internal lubrication.
SECONDLY take a good look at the heads. If you don't know what a very worn head looks like,
INSIST that the seller sends the heads off for a WRITTEN 'Head Inspection Report".
Even I - and I've been working on pro tape machines for over 25 years now - can't tell by sight exactly how much metal is left on heads....
unless I can see that they're extremely worn down. Remember that audio tape acts like sandpaper:
it will sand off metal from the pole pieces of the heads porportional to the amount of tape that has run across the head.
Make sure you look at the 'Bad Heads" page below !!!
But often a worn head has enough metal left that it can be relapped once or twice more.
The only true way to find out is to send the heads off and get a Head Report.
Split the cost with the seller if he hasn't gotten a head report
It's better to turn down a machine with very worn heads than to think you can find good used heads for it.
Places to send heads to be evualuated:
John Austin (from the old Sprague Magnetics facility in Sylmar, California...and tell him goreski sent you!)
email him at: email Link - John Austin from Sprague Magnetics REMOVE THE "X' IN THE .comx IN THE EMAIL LINK !!!
John French (East Coast) http://www.jrfmagnetics.com/
In the link below are pictures of Heads in various state of wear and some heads with open tracks:
But a head can look great and still be bad !!!
the WORST thing would be to buy a machine that needs new heads.
Next take a look at the transport buttons on the Remote and on the machine itself.
Usually you can tell how much use the machine has had by the amount of wear on the buttons.
But be wary - they also could have replaced the button caps! Look at the metal face plate,
it too will let you know if there have been a lot of hands on the machine or not.
Get a 'feel' for the cosmetics of the machine, worn spots indicate use.
Next pull a few audio cards (power off the machine first!!!) out of the machine at random.
Take a look at the components and compare a couple of the same cards. Look to see if there have been a lot of repairs
- you'll see diffrent components and possibly some really bad repair work. Not that good-quality repair itself is bad,
but often as the owner begins to think about selling their multi-track they start cutting corners and try to do the repairs on their own
or getting the kid next door to work on the machine. Turn the card over and look at the solder side where the traces are.
See if you spot a lot of newer looking solder points and flux residue.
Be aware that a lot of techs clean off all the leftover flux after they make a repair, and this could make the repairs undectable.
Myself I like to leave some flux on the board to alert me or someone else that a repair has been made and what components have been replaced.
Don't be put off by a repaired card here and there.... but if you see nothing but repaired cards something's wrong.
Below are some pictures of cards in various state of repair - from some really weird repairs by amateurs to good quality work.
< pictures not yet edited... come back soon! >
Sometimes cards have been 'modded' - that is modified to be 'better' than the original or to blanket-replace aged components.
This is not a bad thing if done correctly. And sometimes you will see various small components soldered to the front
or back of a Transport Control Card and perhaps small wires running here and there.
So long as it looks to be good work and the machine is running in top condition, I wouldn't worry about this.
But I'd be worried if you saw this on the Audio Cards!
ALWAYS FIND OUT IF THE MOD IS DOCUMENTED IN THE MANUAL !!!
Next of course you want to clean the machine, de-mag it and run it through all the transport modes
- use a tape that can be acidentently damaged just in case anything screws up.
Tape should run smoothly and the machine should have no visible problems. Of course you must use new-ish tape...
some of the old tape is shedding, and you can't use tape that has gone bad... it will gunk up the guides and heads.
Finally you need to do a FULL AUDIO ALIGNMENT on the machine.
This is the ONLY way you can get a feel for the machine: how the audio cards are operating,
how the heads handle the alignment and how good the system is. &
By doing a full alignment you can listen for distortion, check for noisy cards,
check the depth of erasure and most importantly check the bias and the frequency response of the machine.
Feel the pinch roller.... it should feel firm with a bit of give. It should NOT feel sticky....
if it does you'll have to replace it just as soon as possible.
Often machines that have sat around or have had their pinch rollers cleaned with bad cleaners
will have deteriorated pinch rollers which are literally melting.
They get more and more 'sticky'. Soon they will grab the tape and screw things up big-time.
If you're looking at a machine that has a sticky pinch roller - and you don't have much time,
have someone run out to a pharmacy and buy a can of talcum power - baby power - and so long as the owner says it's ok,
you can put some of that onto the pinch roller and try to dry it up so that at least you can run tape on the machine for a while.
DON"T GET ANY INTO THE CAPSTAN BEARINGS!
This is a last-gasp fix that likely will allow you to see if the machine will run in the play mode for a few minutes.
And of course - if the pinch roller is sticky don't play a good or important tape on the machine!
You just might ruin it... and you'll likely have some of the pinch-roller gunk and powder on the tape.
But this trick might give you 5 or 10 minutes in which you can check the machine out. --- New Pinch Rollers are EXPENSIVE !!! ---
OK and here are a couple of other tips:
1) Never trust what the seller is saying - find out for yourself
2) Get a current head report if you can.
Offer to split the cost with the seller if he hasn't already gotten a head report and you like the machine.
If the Seller doesn't want to get a Head Report done just walk away from the machine... you don't want it.
Too many folks are sellling worn out machines with bad or worn-out heads. Think 'No head-report, no Sale!
3) Brokers are in the business of selling equipment as fast as possible.
Most offen they never even see the equipment. You should avoid brokers at all costs!!! there are a lot of machines for sale right now, and you want to deal directly with the seller. AVOID BROKERS!!!
Yes there are some good honest ones, but most 'Brokers'are folks with whom I would not do business.
I've seen machines that have been sold that do not work correctly. I've seen machines sold by Brokers without the correct cards in them.
I've seen machines sold at twice the average going price by Brokers.
Remember that Brokers only make money if a machine is sold, so they're in the business of selling you that machine
- not getting you necessarily the best machine out there at the best possible price.
But again, there are some good honest brokers out there - but they're rare.
I've just seen too many rotten deals go down arraigned by Brokers. As an example: A guy bought a console from a Broker, paid for it,
only to find out the Broker spent the money and never got the equipment... and then the buyer's lawyer
told him it wasn't worth the time and cost to go after the guy since he was across the Country and likely didn't have any money anyway.
So a really nice studio owner lost $ 15,000. Remember - a Broker will add in 10 - 150% for himself...
and all he's done is make a few phone calls. You can make those same calls and save thousands of dollars.
4) NEVER BUY A MACHINE THAT YOU HAVE NOT SEEN
(or has not been checked out by a reliable tech or someone you really trust and who KNOWS the gear)
5) Make sure you factor in things like shipping the machine and the cost of you getting to where the machine is.
One client of mine bought a machine in New York City - but when he told me about how much the machine was going to be bought for
he neglected to tell me that he was flying out to NYC, checking the machine out then shipping it all the way back to the San Francisco Bay Area... !!
6) Do NOT trust anyone but yourself and those you know to be honest. (You can trust me though!)
Don't buy a machine because the guy on the phone seems honest or nice. Most likely he is, but you won't know until the deal goes down.
So be wary. Most people are honest. But good con men also appear to be 'honest' and nice!!! Like Mr. Trump !!
7) If you don't know EXACTLY what you're buying you should NOT buy it!
8) Do not buy something just because it has a 'reputation' on the Internet or folks say it's "great sounding" unless you personally know
that this same unit was (or is) in (or was in) constant use in big pro studios. What this means is that you want to purchase
good equipment and fully 'pro' gear that was in use in the majority of top recording studios during the time it was new gear.
So you wouldn't want to buy a Scully deck or a Stevens tape recorder.... they were not the 'normal' recorders used everywhere.
Sure they saw some use and made some hits. But it is the normal - which means reliable and top-notch - gear you want to get.
Stay with well known name-brands... Ampex, MCI, Studer, Otari... for Tape Machines.
9) Don't buy gear that isn't working. If it doesn't run right, pass on it.
Don't buy gear in pieces or taken apart.
10) Most guarantees are worth the paper they're written out on.
You almost always are buying tape recorders, consoles and outboard gear "As-Is".
11) IF YOU DON'T KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE GETTING DO NOT BUY IT!
Man I can tell you stories about folks who thought they were buying one thing,
only to find out they actually bought something else. One guy bought a whole console automation system
thinking it could just slip into his console only to find out it couldn't, and never worked anyway... and that he could NOT return it.
Yeah, right. He lost everything. Didn't know what he was buying until it arrived at his door -
after the check had cleared the bank. All because he trusted the Broker to put together the deal for him.
12)
13) Do NOT buy something because folks on the Internet say it 'sounds great' or is a 'classic'.
The Internet forums and chatrooms are full of bullshit and mistruth, most often given by people who have no experience or expertise.
You cannot trust just about anything you hear from audio forums and recording chatrooms.
People can say anything and they do.... they tell you how good their work is, how great an engineer they are, how perfect their ears are,
and yet they've never recorded a 'major label' record, nor worked in a top-level studio.
The Internet is full of frauds and pretenders. So when you get 'advice' or hear that something sounds great,
just remember that there are a lot of 60 year old men pretending to be 14 years old girls on the Internet.
14) Never buy equipment that is not running.... never buy gear you have not seen yourself... never trust anyone except folks you know...
15) Never go out and 'buy the best' equipment available. There is a ton of great sounding gear out there for pennies on the dollar.
You don't need 'the best'. You need good professional serviceable gear.
Remember that all the great sounding records of the 60's. 70's and 80's were likely recorded with early 16 and 24 track recorders,
mastered onto a 1/4 inch 15 ips 2 track, and recorded with less gear than you have right now.
Better equipment does NOT equal better sound. It's better that you have a lot of pro Outboard gear, a good large selection of mics,
good monitors and good tape recorders, than to spend money on things like 1 inch 2 tracks, or a rare and expensive mic.
Get those only after you hve reached your limitations with 'good' equipment.... and that's going to take years and years before it happens,
so cut your teeth with more 'good' gear rather than just a few pieces of 'great' gear.
Finally: NEVER BUY GEAR THAT IS NOT WORKING or HAS PROBLEMS !!!,/font>