1948 Majestic Wire Recorder: Restoring and Re-Inventing

Let's re-invent another "time machine" which allows us to take a step back into the past and play electronic recordings made over 75 years ago. In this case, our time machine is the Majestic (brand) wire recorder! If you would like to hear more ancient recordings, just let me know!
As promised, here are all the new items included in the reinvention:
Lid Light: amzn.to/3VMIyyS
Amp: amzn.to/3GgeeXC
Speaker(s): amzn.to/3IgoMZz
LED Strip Lights: amzn.to/3In4z4i
AC Power Strip: amzn.to/3WHlO4N
Grommets: amzn.to/3VIcVq4
PS for Microcassette Recorder: amzn.to/3QdlhVv
Digital Recorder: amzn.to/3vBqmha
Switches: amzn.to/3QfNfQO
Line Out Converter: amzn.to/3IhkMYR
Guitar Socket: amzn.to/3GCeulm
3.5mm to RCA: amzn.to/3X3EpHM
Guitar Socket: Jack amzn.to/3Z6XYAZ
Potentiometer: amzn.to/3X0KoNB
Stylus Cartridge: amzn.to/3GcDJcr
Source of E-Caps: Mouser.com
Source of Tubes: Tubesandmore.com
Photofacts: samswebsite.com
Source of other caps: ebay.com
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[@marktubeie07]

It's actually amazing how good wire recordings were, possibly the best recording quality available for domestic consumption of its time. Pity it was often expensive and out of the price range of most consumers of the day, otherwise we would have far more historical records of that period in existence. Great vid!

[@databits]

Thank you. The other ridiculous problem is the tangled mess the wire can turn into.

[@Sierra747]

Great video. Nice conversation so you can still play the wire reals but record digitally too.

[@floeki-jekker]

i place the new capacitors always inside the bigger old ones because it looks more original.

[@ladymunch0]

I'm glad you made it work in the end. Great video. Have you thought of uploading the other audio pieces to the internet archive? It should do fine up there I'd hope.

[@frankowalker4662]

Nice rebuild. :)

[@ronnievenhorst9873]

Nice to see and hear. It's a pity that the old technique could not be made. But succeeded with modern means

[@scrunchgumpgins4711]

I don't remember where I read this, but wire recorders can apparently be damaged in such a way that the windings in the head are "burnt up" and can no longer record onto wire, only play it.

[@C.I...]

I was just wondering about these! All the commercial (I presume) magnetic wire recording formats still don't have anything on their pages on Wikipedia yet.

[@bltvd]

Really awesome project! Why didn’t you split the signal coming out of the preamp to record from digitally instead of having to add the attenuator from the amplifier output?

[@databits]

I touched on this idea in the video. The basic reason is that I did not have a splitter and I didn’t want to have to spend any more money on it. 😂😂

[@stefvanmeel1]

Super i'm impressed i actually want to know What the Quality can be with this new Equipment for music or Talk on the Wire can you make a new recording zo we can see what the Quality could be

[@onyourjackjones]

Would be interesting to see what kind of quality a wire reel would have using digital masters. Is recording to the wire a case of outputting to a mono connection on the wire reel head? I wonder what you’d get, quality wise, sending a 192KHZ 32 bit mono signal to the head? I’m guessing the head is limited to what frequencies it can actually record, but with a high quality signal input I’m also assuming the quality of the recorded signal would be pretty good.

[@cooliofoolio]

He should try using the dbx encoder on it lol

[@_-_Michael_-_]

Actually most of the times tubes are OK even if they were used a lot. The caps and sometimes burnt resistors are the biggest source of no working condition in those machines. Same with all old tube stuff. They made tubes well then.

[@cheeseparis1]

Amazing video, too bad the restoration didn't succeed but the main event works, you are able to digitize wires! I was afraid about the taped wire while (recording) EDIT : I meant rewinding, hoping it didn't break anything. I bet you stopped rewinding ahead of time. The Dymo font matches the old one rather well, but a wood background color would bring an even better look

[@databits]

Yes, I may revisit the label situation. I would just need to order new labels.

[@onyourjackjones]

Was the stuff someone asked you to play for them the WW2 reels?

[@databits]

No, it was actually the the audio I used in the video. I didn’t use the World War II audio since it may be copyrighted.

[@metalmusic1401]

Dude! i love this stuff its just too cool to watch :) I hope you do more awesome stuff this Year!!!

[@databits]

Thank you!

[@DanOConnorTech]

Good machine at the finish. I enjoyed it. Allow me to spend even more of your money: Buy a different roll of label maker tape with a more complimentary color to the machine surfaces. That white tape is pretty loud and distracting.

[@databits]

Good tip!

[@krtekcyberpunker]

Chce se mi zvracet 😵‍💫

[@imranahmad2733]

Didn't blackbox recorders use a similar technology in planes before they went all digital, it's worth checking out secret life of machines S02E06, they talk about the history of magnetic media.

[@databits]

Yes, black boxes did have wire recorders in them

[@erikmolnar6585]

Watching this now; 10 minutes in. Beautiful work on that. I have a non functioning Betamax I've been tinkering with. Powers on but is locked up. Definitely needs at least 1 belt. I might figure it out someday? Anyway, the wire recorder is definitely fascinating technology.

[@databits]

Thanks Erik