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Vintage Tape (Audio), Cassette, Wire and Magnetic Disc Recorders and Players Open-reel tape recorders, cassette recorders, 8-track players etc.

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Old 11th Jul 2020, 9:56 am   #1
Edward Huggins
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Default The Collaro "studio" tape deck.

On my 18th birthday (March 1959) I got my very first Tape Recorder, it was 39gns - but my Father's firm being in the Trade, meant I only needed to pay the Wholesale price.
This featured the then, just released, Collaro "Studio" 3 speed deck. These were very well featured with 3 large motors.
This has been regularly used over all these many years and with only ever one problem. By the mid 1990s, I found that the tape would not run in "Play" mode until the deck plate warmed up from the valves in the amplifier underneath it. It was just a metal link expansion thing (and hard to locate) and is the only adjustment it's ever needed.
Being a Student at the time (and for many years after) I cost-efficiently recorded most of the music content at 3 3/4 ips - half track of course. Speech Lettertapes (oh yes, I used them!) @ 1 7/8 ips.
It's still working extremely well, with virtually no noise coming from the motors or flywheel. Of course the playback head has now become worn over time and I would describe the HF response @3 3/4 ips as being a bit "brighter" and more forward than a good AM radio signal. It's still sounds good at 7.5 ips. I would like to use it on recordings made on my much later R2Rs, but these would have been on 1/4 track, and mainly in Stereo, so that's not really possible now.
Some many years back a head upgrade was offered (Bogen?) which I considered, but I'm not sure if I will bother now. I would really welcome other Member's views of the excellent mid-range deck.
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Old 11th Jul 2020, 12:21 pm   #2
barrymagrec
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Default Re: The Collaro "studio" tape deck.

My Dad bought me a Collaro Studio deck around 1964 when the decks were being sold cheap from somewhere on the Edgeware Road - only snag being it was 110 volts , but we had a Radiospares "Hygrade" autotransformer so not a problem.

I connected it into the electronics of an EMI TR50 tape machine and it worked well, perched on suitable sized paint tins. It had the advantage over the TR50 deck of full "A" wind and half track heads to save on tape.

I used it for several years, in fact it`s still in my parents loft.
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Old 11th Jul 2020, 12:27 pm   #3
Amraduk
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Default Re: The Collaro "studio" tape deck.

Hello Barry,

What's '"A" wind'?

Regards,

Dave.
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Old 11th Jul 2020, 12:40 pm   #4
barrymagrec
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Default Re: The Collaro "studio" tape deck.

"A" wind is the normal oxide in system used on virtually all more modern tape machines. "B" wind is where the tape is spooled such that the oxide is outermost.

"B" wind was used on the German machines before the war and on various other post war Tape machines including the EMI BTR1 of 1947 and I think the earliest Ampex machines. One problem is that it means the tape heads face away from you making editing more difficult.

The EMI TR50 (and other machines using the TR50 deck) was a hybrid, feed was "A" wind , take-up was "B" wind - this was no problem with full track recordings since you weren`t going to turn the tape over anyway but it was a pain for half track use.

There are some suggestions that "B" wind was an advantage in reducing print through, a problem with early types of tape but in the case of the TR50, a single motor deck, I think it was just to simplify the mechanics.
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Old 11th Jul 2020, 1:41 pm   #5
Ted Kendall
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Default Re: The Collaro "studio" tape deck.

The Ampex 200 was originally B-wind, but the 201 upgrade kit issued shortly afterwards included a reversed headblock, and all subsequent models were A-wind.

I don't think B-wind does much for print-through, either, although tail-out storage has some benefits, either through causing the louder print to happen after the event rather than before or the rewinding necessary before play.

The Studio was a better proposition than its predecessor, the more complex Transcriptor, and by and large was a decent performer. Tom Reps found it necessary to re-machine some bits to reach his standards, but the resulting R10 was a formidable machine for the price. Clamping arrangements for fixing the brake drums to the motor shafts varied over the production span, and some of these were prone to slippage and consequent wear caused by differential expansion.
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Old 11th Jul 2020, 4:01 pm   #6
Hartley118
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Default Re: The Collaro "studio" tape deck.

My Collaro Studio deck served me faithfully through my student days and beyond. It was the heart of a Stern Radio kit using an amplifier to the Mullard HF/TR3 design with correct equalisation on all 3 speeds.

I recall that, during my apprentice training in a prototype wiring shop, the generous foreman encouraged me to complete it during shop overtime (such was the general corruption in UK industry at the time!). I made many recordings of student performances and it served years as the source of music and sound effects at college concerts, being much less mechanically 'clunky' than a Ferrograph. I even fitted an extra head and preamp to create Hank Marvin style echo for the band lead guitar, such were the primitive means available to students back in the day.

Many recordings made on the Studio deck survive to this day.

The main design snag I found with the Studio deck was the fragility of that polystyrene head cover. I'd still love to find an intact one. The capstan drive idler wheel was also inclined to get contaminated and 'rumbly', so needed regular cleaning.

Martin
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Old 11th Jul 2020, 6:19 pm   #7
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Default Re: The Collaro "studio" tape deck.

I have my late uncle's Elizabethan tape recorder plus tapes, that has the 2 track studio deck. AFAIR he bought it in the autumn of 1960. It's currently on the "round tuit" pile: the rubber pinch roller has gone hard and is disintegrating. Any suggestions for where to get a replacement pinch roller? Fortunately the user manual includes a circuit diagram so it should be possible to sort out any isses with the electronics. It was last powered up more than a decade ago.
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Old 11th Jul 2020, 7:26 pm   #8
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Default Re: The Collaro "studio" tape deck.

Edward's Collaro Studio would of course been the early one, bi-directional, with the complex switching, & the large buttons either side. Nice machine. I did have some heads for these, but have no idea where they might be, sorry!

The later decks were not really as good, although they were more streamlined. I bought mine from Lisle street in London, happy memories. I built several recorders with these, sadly now all 'junked'.

David.
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Old 11th Jul 2020, 7:47 pm   #9
ajgriff
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Default Re: The Collaro "studio" tape deck.

Many years ago I bought a non-working DIY tape recorder from a back street junk shop. Back then I had plans to build a reasonable quality tape machine using the three motor deck as a base. Never happened of course although the deck still resides in the loft. Until today I'd never been able to identify the maker but thanks to this thread I now know it's a Collaro Studio.

Alan

Last edited by ajgriff; 11th Jul 2020 at 7:56 pm.
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Old 11th Jul 2020, 9:01 pm   #10
Jonster
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Default Re: The Collaro "studio" tape deck.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vintage Engr View Post
Edward's Collaro Studio would of course been the early one, bi-directional, with the complex switching, & the large buttons either side. Nice machine. I did have some heads for these, but have no idea where they might be, sorry!

The later decks were not really as good, although they were more streamlined. I bought mine from Lisle street in London, happy memories. I built several recorders with these, sadly now all 'junked'.

David.
I'm sure the bi-directional one was the Collaro 'Tutor', a different animal to the 'Studio'.
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Old 11th Jul 2020, 9:22 pm   #11
Simon Gittins
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Default Re: The Collaro "studio" tape deck.

The bi-directional deck was the Collaro Tape Transcriptor, used in many tape recorders (mine is the Spectone 161); I've just looked up the 'Tutor' and that does indeed use the Transcriptor deck.
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Old 12th Jul 2020, 9:23 pm   #12
lesmw0sec
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Default Re: The Collaro "studio" tape deck.

Yes - my first serious machine used a Collaro - with Bogen heads fitted and a sleeve which a friend made for me if I wanted to run at 15 ips. I supplied the electronics. Later moved over to a Brennel.
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