Spoiler Saver and Riddle 4 hours ago, it was as long after 4am as it was before 4pm the same day. What time is it now?

I'm now old enough to have a chuckle watching somebody having struggles with old technology that I understand. Another good one Vince.

Hey, just a comment to say thanks. Massive thanks. I recently got one of these from a family friend who had passed away. I've watched it all, and I've fixed it! It was mint in the box, but the clutch had gone bad. It's now working and sounding great. Thanks mate!

Oh, to track down the descendents of the people in the recording! They'd appreciate it I'm sure.

In 1965 I got a dutch Philips EL 3586 reel-to-reel as a christmas gift , this one totally solid state. All PNP germanium transistors as AC 125 / AC 126 / AC 128. At the beginning of your video I thought N4303 was solid state as well but as I saw the magic eye I realized there were tubes on it , what makes me think it was designed at the end of 1950s. I enjoy your videos , you are an example of motivation and persistence. Keep posting them !

Wouldn't it be lovely to reunite that recording with it's originator or their family...

Hi there from a 70 year old -though my brain says I'm only about 40 :) Good to see you discovering old equipment. Valve equipment like this was routine to me when I was a youngster. Considering this machine is half a century old it has come back to life remarkably easily and is working very well with minimal, mainly mechanical fixes. You're very creative with the fixes - I loved the O rings to fix the clutch. The speed sounds pretty accurate. I doubt if there's any adjustment. The motor is a synchronous mains one - tied to the 50Hz of the supply. If the speed seems slightly slow then stripping the motor and lubricating the bearings is about all you can do. Light 'sewing machine oil' is fine there. If you're going to be working on more mains powered equipment - valve or solid-state - then a bulb limiter and an isolation transformer are basically essential, both for your own safety and to protect the equipment if it has major faults. The bulb(s) have to be the old style filament ones not modern CFLs or LEDs. Basically, a 40 watt bulb will limit the maximum current to a sixth of an amp if there is a short circuit (full or partial) and save you a lot of grief. It also reduces the mains voltage across the equipment if it is working properly so that things do not heat up as fast and you may get to the off switch before further damage occurs. They're easy enough to knock up with a batten lamp socket, a switch and an output socket for the supply. If you're really serious you can make a multi-bulb version where you can switch in extra bulbs in parallel to gradually reduce the limiting. It's all on YT. The mains isolation transformer disconnects you from a direct connection to the mains - often called 'floating' the supply - and greatly reduces the chance of electrocution. Even so there can be DC voltages of 300 volts or more in valve equipment - not to be taken lightly! A dose of that will probably induce a high volume display of your command of the English language :) By the looks of the 'Magic Eye' - nice and bright - this recorder hasn't been used much. They gradually fade away with use, just like any CRT. Look after that one. They are very rare new nowadays and very expensive if you manage to find a replacement. The specialists in valve gear often have to use approximate Russian replacements in radios - they're used as tuning indicators in 1950s radios - which need a fair bit of work to fit. Enjoy your new pathway. I can specially recommend 3 folks on YT for anyone interested in valve gear. Manuel Coreira who lives in Madeira - lucky bugger! (Electronics Old and New), Paul Carlson in Canada (Mr Carlson's Lab) and David Tipton in Australia - he also is a wizard on cases and cabinet work. All 3 know their valve electronics in depth and are great and entertaining teachers too. They also demonstrate that there are different approaches to repairs and renovations - all valid and equally productive. I know they all have great respect for each other's work.

That was so cool! I hope the family see this and get in contact with you, that would be amazing.

I was born way before transistors so valves are so normal to me. I have worked in some and had Gelosos recorders.I love your videos. Cheers Patagonia Argentina

Very interesting. We used to have one similar when I was a kid. Especially remember the magic eye meter. My parents were the opposite of hoarders so once a thing stopped being used they would have disposed of it, so these things are lost to me, but if we still had it, you would have find very similar content, along with recordings of 9 year old me making my own ‘radio’ plays.

Loved this. I was born in 1962 and we had this exact model when I was growing up. The microphone was also kept in the storage box at the back and was a plastic desktop type.

I love old tapes like this. I used to buy old tapes from carboot sales and enjoy people's old recordings. In a perfect world you could find who's mother/grandmother this is so the family can enjoy the memory but it'd be nearly impossible without a lot of sharing online I'd imagine :)

Funny! I found the exact same model dumped at a bottle bank recently along with an Amstrad green screen monitor. I've restored the monitor to working order and use it with a restored Amstrad CPC464. I cleaned up the outside of the reel to reel and started removing the belt gunk as you did by scraping it away. But it's a messy job and I put it on the shelf to continue at a later date. It also came with a tape (lost Beatles recording?) Seeing this has inspired me to finish the restoration. Thanks for the video. 👍

How has Vince not got a million subscribers yet?? He should have way more than a million by now.

Fascinating.I keep wanting to shout things out at you,because that old machine was the equivalent to high tech in my day LOL.Well done.

wicked repair of what most people would throw away, the recording was classic!

This is really nice, wasn't expecting this one to be fixed. My parents had an old LP player, as big as a table but they sold it, thing was 50 years old...sadly I can't get it back and give it a fix. But we got you here doing a great job and making us happy, fixing stuff that have more value than money! Thank you!

' Magic Eye's ' are lovely, I miss them !....cheers.

awesome Vince, "voices from the past" gives me shivers, Great video keep them coming.

I spent my entire day fixing a Philips VHS VCR, now it is working properly and I decided to call it a day. Now I am here watching Vince fixing another Philips player

Always love watching your fixes! Great job on this one. Gives me a bit more courage to start working on those walkmen and vcrs I have waiting for me to clean up and test.

This brings back memories! My Grandfather (d. 1983) had a complex recording set-up with a turntable, cassette deck, and reel to reel tape recorders. The last time I used/saw this media format was in 1987 in High School; we listened to tapes in French to improve our vocabulary.

I did a similar model 4308 a few months ago... Finding that post with the O'Rings was a revelation! Glad you got yours going too!

Brilliant! Enjoyed that, and listening to the recordings at the end! Recording made public for the first time since the 60s or 70s? Sounds a tiny bit slow - maybe there's an adjust for speed when you go in there to replace the belts! It may need some of the capacitors replacing in that btw! Be careful around the tubes, you get high voltage in there! Often when first powering something like this its work using the current limit technique of putting a 40w or 100w bulb in series with the live connection.

Just got one of these with the same issues, however not tube version, very helpful and informative, will tackle it with more confidence now. Many thanks

That was lovely to hear the people that had recorded on there, amazed the tape survived for so long!

This brought back memories - I used to play with this deck for hours back around 1971 .. 1973. Happy days opening it up.

Stunning job, I love your dogged determination to keep on keeping on. I stumbled upon your channel and it’s become one of my favourites (along with Techmoan) especially now you are fixing equipment like this and early 80’s boom boxes/ game consoles etc etc. Anyhoooo, subscribed 👍👌

OMG... how beautiful stayied after the clean that you did... really looks beautiful with all this different colors. congrats Vince from Brazil... (i love when you fix mechanics stuff and notebook, keep doing this amazing job)

Just brilliant Vince, thank you mate. Remember playing with reels in My youth. So cool, Cheers Vince

I love it. Very stylish and one of your best fixes Vince 👍🏻

OMG I got one for Xmas ~ 1967, this takes my back Yes, it's mono, but I converted my unit to stereo.

Well done vince, not only did you repair it, and work out how it worked, you had to learn to use it too!! Great video matey!

This was just great to watch, and really touching listening to the voices on the tape at the end.

Will be continuing a repair on a furgason reel 2 reel this sat at repair cafe.using your video to resolve no play.great

Nice work on the repair... The reason for the clutch on the take up reel is it will turn at different speeds as the tape is rolled onto the reel and changes sizes. As the tape plays on, the take up reel slows because it's bigger. At the beginning, it spins faster. The rate of the play is from the pinch roller and that has to be constant or the sound will waver. The clutch will keep the correct tension on the tape throughout the length of the tape. It's like the gearing on a bike; big gear in back, little gear in front, you peddle like crazy. Little gear in back and big in front, you pedal slower.

After watching your Roberts boom box vid the other day, I thought I’d try something similar (I know next to nothing of electronics but really want to learn), so I ordered a 1996 Panasonic off eBay which needed a little bit of tic... after a thorough deep clean and re soldering the speakers (they were back to front).. it looks almost new and sounds great, so thank you for the inspiration! (I’ve ordered two more fixers, I’m hooked lol).

really like this one Vince. Love to see a re-visit when you put the belts on.

keep up the good work vince . i always look forward to your content . thank you :-)

Great fix my dad used to have an old reel to reel. I have a never stereo Akia version which I use regular. when you press pause not only does it put the brakes on the reels to stop them spooling tape all over the place, it pulls back the pinch roller to stop the tape moving. The take up reel on the right doesn't need much pulling power or it would damage the tape it's only to take up the slack fro the pinch roller. It looks really good now it's all cleaned up these belts in old equipment are a real pain to clean up brilliant job.

One of your best, really enjoyed that 👍 A families lost treasure there.

These belts are a nightmare to re do.they always go to goo on Philips equipment and it’s a nightmare to remove.the goo ends up everywhere and it’s not easy to get out of clothes etc - or skin! Great work Vince and I take my hat off to you for sticking with it

My very first tape recorder was this exact model, so this video gave me a nice walk down memory lane. I got it in... let me see... I bought it with money I got for my Confirmation, so it must have been in 1966 or 1967, I suppose. I used it mainly to record songs from the radio, and played back both using the built-in speaker AND the radio, so it got a bit more presence. Good times.

A very interesting video. I love reel-to-reels and have a couple of them myself. Thanks.

that "rust like material" is tape residue, of the magnetic type :)

Well done Vince, once I saw the state of that gunky old rubber I wasn’t holding out my hope for you to fix it. Great to hear what was on the reels too - a Suffolk swede, away to Google that one 😉

I love you Vince and i am proud of you

Very nicely done Sir, Philips machines can be tricky and the belt to goo thing is very common. There are some capacitors that really do need to be changed though to bring it up to it's best. There should be no DC volts on the grids of the valves. Check this! The manual is available on line.

Excellent once again. The right hand spool is just "take up", just enough power to wind the tape on hence the clutch, the drive is done by the pinch roller (the "rusty" bit, it really is rust too) onto the spindle near the head

Aw a voice from the past, How amazing, it must mean something to someone out there. It's somebody's mum x

very interesting video vince. keep them coming

Those mystery tapes are fun to listen to!

If you route a length of string round the belt path you'll get an idea of how long the belt needs to be. You measure the total distance and halve it.

that was a brilliant fix video Vince thanks for posting i would love to see a follow up if and when you get the new bands for it :)

The two pulleys are also idlers that drive the reel tables in FFwd/Rew. There's most likely a clutch hidden underneath the take-up reel table (on the right) that engages during playback. The pinch roller moves the tape and the takeup reel just turns to keep the tape under tension and wind it onto the empty reel. Since the speed of the reel needs to vary depending on the diametre of the tape pack currently on the reel, single-motor recorders require some kind of slip clutch mechanism. You're spot on about the felt disc having something to do with it. I don't think the felt needs to be glued down though, the spots could be from the decomposing rubber bits as well. The 4307 you found online is the successor, a re-designed all-transistor model from 1969 if I remember correctly. The clutch in that one might be different. At 6:22 you found the brake pad for the pause function I think. The pause lever lifts the pinch roller off the capstan and engages the brake to keep the tape from moving. If you press the key just a little bit, you can usually make the pinch roller slip without engaging the brake, causing tape speed to go up to Mickey Mouse levels. The brush was said to discharge static electricity from the belt. I know of two chemicals/cleaners that remove Philips belt goo without taking forever and spreading it everywhere. One of them is acetone, which unfortunately isn't safe to use on plastic, and the other is a specific kind of printer cleaner by German Kontakt Chemie, it's called Printer 66. Those motors were always on because these mechs required a lot of torque to get up to speed and with the motors they used, spinning up the flywheel every time you pressed a button would've taken far too much time. Another massive issue with these recorders is that Philips used a kind of grease that turns rock hard when sitting idle for decades. Ideally you'd take the whole machine to bits, clean off all the grease and then regrease everything. It looks like this mechanism isn't as sensitive as the previous one Philips used in machines like the EL3515, which requires the takeup reel table to drop down one or two notches depending on what function you select - I think it's one notch for playback (clutch engaged) and two steps for FFwd (clutch locked, three rubber posts moving the reel table at full speed and torque). If that gets sticky, the recorder always tries to move the tape, even in stop. RTR was well before my time too but I started playing with old ones in the early 90s so I learned a lot about them. The very first one I had never worked, a British-made Robuk RK-3 that had a tape on it. It's mostly music from around 1963 to 1968 recorded from vinyl records but also a little bit of family recording, a man talking, a woman singing nursery songs and a baby crying. The man is properly cursing the recorder, incredibly funny to listen to! I even know which house the recorder came from and asked in a local Facebook group if anyone knew people who'd lived there in the late 60s or early 70s but nothing ever came of it. The family recording partly erased the music, so I'd assume it's later than 1968. I played that tape on my mom's Grundig TK 145 and then got my own Philips 4308 and played with that until the belts started to fail. I still have it but I'm not quite willing to replace the belts and clutch rubbers because I know I won't use it and new belts don't like sitting idle. I do have one RTR set up in mostly working condition, a 1970s N4504, an amazing bit of kit. Extremely lightweight but an intricate design, featuring three motors with electronic speed control and other nice things.

36:53 ..one time….35:58…two times..🎶

Voices from the past. Very nice machine with very nice mechanisms.

great vid we had one of these as a kid that we played with was old tech at the time but somthing about the old tech made it fun

Can’t wait for this one! Got a cup of tea

1966 was my birth year Vince. So not only famous for England's World Cup win against The Bosch.

Vince.. I know you're already busy, but please try to find out who this family was. I'm sure their relatives are still around. Great job as always!!!!!

well done vince brilliant.

Thanks for this video :) I'm dealing looooong term with a similar Philips model and It's stripped down rubber-tar-cleaned in a box just now for a later date / autumn.

I had one when I was 12 years old. Got it from my dad. As far as I can remember, the machine had a pretty decent sound. It came with a plastic microphone in the same style as the machine.

You've just revived a little bit of history there. :)

This machine is definitely a keeper! It definitely plays too slow and you can hear wow and flutter. With new belts it should play much better. Maybe if you cook the pinch rollers in hot water and use a little stiffer felt for the clutch you are on a good way. Keep good care on the magic eye, this is a rare thing nowadays.

Interesting video. I have 3 old machines, a Fidelity, an Austrian one and a Philips machine which seems the same as yours. Am not confident to take them apart, but am fascinated by them. I have so much old audio awaiting overhaul but the wife will not be happy with resultant bills. Keep smiling.

Im very impressed you got that working an looking good as new ;)

Amazing vid fella 👍👍👍 2pm ???

That’s Vince singing!! He’s at it!

Nice one, just have an look and see if there are any wax capacitors in it and electrolytic capacitors they should be changed, awesome video 👍

I had the EXACT same tape when i was a kid!

Loverly repair vince, a nice old machine back to a loverly condition :-D The play/record head might have been dirty when that recording was made, or the mic was a bit muffled. I'm supprised that the valves are still happy, same for the magic eye valve. The brown stuff on the pinch roller is the oxide coating on the tapes, you get the same thing on cassette players.

Ooh a reel to reel repair intresting way before my time too

Love when you do mechanical stuff 😊

Wow that came out great!

Very nice video thank you ... Took me back a long time ago .

Great video Vince. Can I suggest before you plug any electronic items in with unknown history you do an earth continuity test from the earth pin on the plug to the metal chassis. I cringed the first time you touched the metal with it turned on. Keep up the good work.

Good fix Vince. If you're continuing on this type of repair, maybe you should source some round and square banding that you can cut to length and superglue. With the microphone, you might see if Techmoan has one you can loan to try it out.

From Wikipedia I found that the song "Killing Me Softly" was recorded late 1971 and was a #1 hit in the US in 1973. I would guess the recording is from around then. Was a surprise to me as well, I honestly only knew the song from the Fugees

Oh yes! I actually have this particular model. If you fix yours, I can fix mine! WOO HOO! I've saved this video!

Great repair Vince.. but.. I was a bit alarmed when you poked metal objects inside near the circuitry... I wonder if you are aware that tube equipment has high DC voltages and the reservoir capacitors (if in good condition) can store lethal voltages for hours after switching off - Tube engineers would drain this by connecting a 1Kohm resistor across the probes of a voltmeter set to 500v and grounding out the various points in the power supply till the voltage is under about 20 v Regards Jevon

old days had some amazing stuff while i was born in September 1991 i grew up with my grandparents that were born a week apart from each other in January 1944 so i have a huge love for old things and history is on of my favorite subjects i remember reading that Walt Disney himself was forced by p.l travers to use a reel to reel recorder when they were discussing Mary Poppins and then the film saving Mr. banks comes out and they put that in which i was so happy about because it kept it to what happened at the time and they had the surviving brother of the Sherman brothers there to help the actors etc. when making saving Mr. banks found your channel the other day from tronicsfix and I've been enjoying your videos and learning a lot

It appears to me 1 of those white stickers on the take up reel says, "Romper Room" That was an American children's television series that was franchised and syndicated from 1953 to 1994. The show was targeted at preschool age children. It was what my mother would put on the TV for me at that age. A 1970's version of a babysitter.

that was cool vince

I've still got one of these mine is a Elizabethan reel to reel I brought it when I was 16 I'm now 65

Really really enjoyed this one & seeing the old glass tube inside reminds me of my moms old sideboard record player in one with built-in radio can we have a quick revisit once you have the new belts ?

Want to know a cool belt trick? Take an old bad bicycle tire innertube, better yet, several different size bad tire innertubes and cut segments of them and you should have enough belt to last you for ever! I haven't tried this yet, but is a good idea even for making your own rubberbands/temporary belts!

Thank you so much for that Video. Very Interesting. At moment i try to Repair an 1960 Philips Television, and a 1949 MW/SW/LW Tube Radio. In the last month i am gett a lot pf Philips Stuff, Like the 1976 TV that works FIne, and an 1972 Record player, that needed just a new belt. And many thinks from Philips waiting for me ;)

I used to love buying these in the “loot” I remember recording on some old tape that came with the machine. We were just setting the tape up to record our rehearsal. So I said in my pretty good john Lennon accent “hey Paul, did you see that berd last night. The bass player doing the Paul accent said “yeah I love her, she makes me feel glad, glad all over. Another slightly different scouser accent: Hey, I’ve gorra idea for a song. And left it with some stuff. 30 years later and I sold loads of that old reel to reel stuff on eBay. I totally forgot about that recording. We were pretty tight and what we did play sounded pretty good. Luckily we didn’t record any songs on that tape before the machine developed a nasty buzz.

You had me shouting at the TV! But well done for figuring it out. All R2R need a good clean and service, new belts and a head and pinch roller clean. Once you have one you’ll be hooked. Get a stereo upright model and wave goodbye to your disposal income. New tapes? About £50 from Record The Masters……..

I restored the same two years ago ... more or less same issue with the "piano" keys and the real issue where the clutchs on each reel and the reel brakes. The clutch sittuation managerd to create a solution since the piece is not shown in the service manual. But the braking I couldnt get it working fine, it works but when reel is fully loaded it will spil some after pressing stop. It is incredible that such a simple thing can cause much trouble to the machine. Aside of that I recaped it (just 5 o 6 electrolitics) and the sound is REALLY GOOD for a machine of its age. It is very stable in speed. In my unit the vibration of the AC motor is a bit high, you can feel it. The rubber bushings are petrified. I think it is a 2 to 3W audio output ... it goes loud and sound better than most of the crossley and baseline BT speakers. I was thinking on adding an aux in directly to the amplifier.

Like finding a time capsule. That's awesome =)

you kick ass, vince!

The rust was iron oxide used as the recording medium on most tapes of the time, and regular cleaning of the recording playback heads was part of owning a reel to reel recorder.Bob.

Well done

1st class video to watch thank you take care kind regards from me kenneth

What a window into the past!

I had one of these from new I remember my Mum and me buying it from Curry’s in Croydon. It was a good little tape recorder the one I had was only a twin track. My Sister had a much bigger Philips four track tape recorder and I used to borrow that one sometimes and do some tape to tape recording all though it was only from two tracks of her recorder.

Killing Me Softly is a studio album by American singer-songwriter Roberta Flack, released on August 1, 1973, by Atlantic Records. It was released before that but didnt chart. A piece of history Vince. Lovely job. Because it has a handle, does that make it one of the first walkmans lol