My 60 years old Tandberg 4-track tape recorder - Will it still work ?

Doing some restoration work on an old Tandberg Model 84 tape recorder from 1965 (or earlier)
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The tape recorder from the well known Norwegian company Tandberg was bought by my father back in the beginning of the 60's. I later got it and used it as a kid and I still have it. Now I found the time to take a look at it. Does it still work ? And what's on the tapes ?
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[@force4200]

Nice going! Old stuff is the best :)

[@Arcticretro]

It sure is!

[@congestiontv]

Wow, this machine is a beast to repair. But imagine the shine in your father's eyes ones he hears himself playing the accordeon in the sixties.

[@Arcticretro]

I sent him a video on the phone :)

[@Moonlightshadow-lq4fr]

@@Arcticretro It would be great to restore this lovely machine just to hear the tape of your dear dad :)

[@Blue_0724]

I replaced the drive belt in my grandparents Tandberg player a couple of years ago. Love the wooden esthetics!

[@Artyomus78]

what a great diversification of your videos it is!

[@Arcticretro]

Glad you like them!

[@starsundsternchen802]

The sewing machine is made in the former GDR (VEB means "Volkseigener Betrieb"). It's funny because I was born in the GDR too 😂. Love it!

[@Arcticretro]

Oh cool!

[@jasonuk8333]

Hope you can do a follow-up video when you next work on this.

[@Arcticretro]

That's the plan!

[@erwindewit4073]

Wow. Here in the Netherlands Tandberg reel to reel recorders were considered to be very good! I love those things. I still use a Revox A77 from the early 70s. So cool! I really like old audio stuff!

[@Arcticretro]

Very cool!

[@erwindewit4073]

@@Arcticretro I also like the design of your recorder. The way everything works! Oh, and the great views in your area of course ...

[@ivarjore6741]

This was very funny to watch, I have some old radios and tape records but not so old like this 😁

[@Arcticretro]

Thank you Ivar :)

[@larryk731]

Interesting. Your wandering into Techmoan's territory. lol

[@svenmartinolsen1385]

Hi Tommy! I think you should check the capstan wheel lubrication on the recorder. On my old Teac 2300SD this was a big problem. The lubrication will get sticky and hard after so many years, so you need to remove the «flywheel» and rinse it to remove the old grease that is on it. I am not sure, but this could be the main problem relating to the uneven tape transport.

[@Arcticretro]

Thank you. Will look into it :)

[@tenminutetokyo2643]

Blast it with compressed air and jam in some cool new LEDs.

[@patzik1910]

I actually think it's not the rubber wheel. This wheel regulates the speed by slowing down the tape, so if it was not working properly it would play too fast, not too slow. The problem is the motor, I had the same thing with a record player (still need to fix this). Jan Beta has a video of a record player with this same speed problem and managed to fix it, so maybe you can watch this for ideas. The problem is that the motor has lubrication inside that has dried up and slows it down.

[@Arcticretro]

Ok, thanks :)

[@Moonlightshadow-lq4fr]

Not on this tandberg it's not. The capstan freewheels nicely, wouldn't hurt to put a drop of oil in the bearing though. It is the rubber pinch wheel slipping. The wheel is regulated by the capstan speed the pinch wheel just pushes the tape against the capstan.

[@AndrewTubbiolo]

Great addition to your content. Hey ... admit it. You've been wanting to take that thing apart since 1975. You held back all these years. So .... Are you going to go all Adrian's Digital Basement on us and add audio outputs so you can use it as a reel to reel data tape recorder for your old 8 bit machines? The ultimate coolness would be once you did - that add a manually sequenced "tar" (Unix style tape archive) command to your 8 bit machines so you can do whole disk backups.

[@Arcticretro]

I love it!

[@senilyDeluxe]

I actually started doing that to a Telefunken KL-85 which has a solenoid controlled pinch roller actuator which means you can computer-control playback/pause, there is even an input for that (remember that thing was built in the late 1950s) so I added a switch to tell the computer when play or record have been pressed and connected it to my Commodore PET. Unfortunately I haven't built the playback amplifier to get TTL level signals out of it, so right now I can only record, but it does look cool when I enter LOAD after having loaded something else already and the machine starts playing by itself under computer control. Funny thing it's more period correct than using a smartphone...

[@AndrewTubbiolo]

@@senilyDeluxe Oh! You're so right, it is more period correct. And OMG, that's so cool you're doing all that. Exciting to hear about. Are you going to make a video about it?

[@senilyDeluxe]

@@AndrewTubbiolo don't expect me to, unless I actually do finish it up. I built that like 10 years ago... with my current knowledge I could get it to work, but getting belts for the reel to reel will probably be harder. Also, space and time are an issue (aren't they always?)

[@erwindewit4073]

Hmm, that sounds really cool. Might try that on my old Revox..

[@miked4377]

its good...but i like the computers much better!

[@Arcticretro]

Me too, but this was fun too :)

[@lokeandersen1257]

Hei:) har en Tandberg 1200x, jeg har prøvd å koble den til platespilleren min, platespilleren min er koblet til radioen min, når jeg kobler den fra radioen til båndopptakeren min med en DIN kabel, og skal ta opptak, så er lyden ekstrem lav

[@Arcticretro]

Hei. Så bra at du har dette :) Platespillere må ha egen inngang fordi de har ingen egen forsterker. Radioen din har sikkert en egen såkalt phono/platespiller inngang. Skal du ta opp eller koble gamle platespillere til nyere forsterkere så trenger du en egen forsterker i mellom. Disse koster fra noen få hundre. Kjell.com har flere. Søk etter "riia forsterker". Lykke til.

[@lokeandersen1257]

@@Arcticretro har en gammel garrard model 2000, den har bare bananplugger, noe båndopptakeren min ikke har

[@AndrewTubbiolo]

Was that heatsunk tube made in Germany? Or West Germany? I guess it could have been the DDR as well.

[@senilyDeluxe]

I think that's an RF-shield, not a heatsink.

[@Arcticretro]

I don't know. Out of my field :)

[@Moonlightshadow-lq4fr]

@@senilyDeluxe I thought that but it's not earthed so wouldn't work as a shield.