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Success Stories If you have successfully repaired or restored a piece of equipment, why not write up what you did and post details here. Particularly if it was interesting, unusual or challenging. PLEASE DO NOT POST REQUESTS FOR HELP HERE!

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Old 18th Sep 2016, 6:18 pm   #1
PSValves
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Default Philips EL 3301

More of a mini-restoration, really, but a success story nonetheless. I picked up this little tape recorder from my local antiques market for a tenner, in nice cosmetic condition with its original case but "not working, fault unknown". The stall-holder had tried some batteries in it and could hear whirring but no sound out of the speaker.

A quick look inside revealed that, whilst the insides were as clean and well-preserved as the external, the drive belts had done the usual and disintegrated into tarry, black gunk. To make matters worse, it appeared that the stall-holder's attempt to run the machine had cause some of the gunk to fly around inside the mechanism.

After several hours of careful cleaning - inter-dental brushes dipped in IPA seemed to work well - I had removed all the gunk. Whilst inside, I cleaned the heads, capstan and pinch wheel and replaced the belts. With a set of fresh batteries (how hard are C-cells to find these days!) I was quite surprised to find the machine burst into life, albeit running fairly slow.

Fortunately I had an old pre-recorded tape (Faith No More) for which I also have an identical MP3 copy. A bit of messing about with the trimmer and with the assistance of my (musician) better half and it's now running at approximately the right speed. I say 'approximately' because there's a bit of variation: I suspect it really needs a new pinch wheel as the old one seems to have gone very hard with age.

Sound quality is pretty much what I'd expected for such an early machine - quite limited bandwidth and a fair amount of background hiss. However, using the supplied microphone, it's actually perfectly adequate for the original task: as a speech recording machine.

Incidentally, I came across this appearance of a EL-33xx series machine in an old episode of Mission Impossible. It looks very similar to my EL-3301 except the control panel is black and the functions of the controls are inscribed on it. Also, the cassette door has been removed, presumably by the production team so "Jim" didn't have to faff about with it with the camera rolling. Anyone know what model it is?

Here's a link to the show, which was first broadcast in 1967, if that helps. Fast forward to about 1'20"
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1a...eal_shortfilms
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Old 18th Sep 2016, 7:35 pm   #2
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Default Re: Philips EL 3301

Nice job.

Also, in daylight, what colour is the main plastic casing as it seems to be more brown than the usual grey of the EL3301s. Perhaps the colour is grey but, due to the warm colour of the lighting, it just appears to look like the brown of the first model, the EL3300.
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Old 19th Sep 2016, 11:26 am   #3
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Default Re: Philips EL 3301

Thanks. It's more of a neutral grey in daylight - the photo was taken under a combination of LED and CFL lighting so the colour rendering is not very good.
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Old 19th Sep 2016, 2:42 pm   #4
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Default Re: Philips EL 3301

Thanks for confirming the colour, as one of my main interests is the EL33XX series, any detail is always helpful. Cheers.
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