Philips EL3541 reel-to-reel tape recorder demonstration

The EL3541 was a great success for Philips, the model initially appearing at the very end of the 1950's, and being carried on until the middle of the 1960's. This particular machine is an EL3541/19H, which is one of the more later, upmarket incarnations, in a vinyl-covered wooden case in classic two-tone grey. Entirely tube based (even having a rectifier tube instead of the more common selenium bridge rectifier) it is really quite a marvel of miniaturization for its time, with a maximum reel size of 7", yet fitting all the mechanics and electronics into its relatively compact case. The EL3541 was a four-track version of the earlier EL3515, yielding twice the playing time of its earlier two-track sibling, which had identical mechanics but a slightly different case.

[@user-ee5pi7dg9q]

I was first familiar with one of these at Christmas 1964 (I was aged eight) I am now on my third one in 2023 (now aged 67) They really knew how to build them back then. The first one met it's demise when I overused it's amplification feature to power a mobile disco. The second one was still operative but ended up in a skip in a garage clear out (along with an all plastic bodied one) The third one is still going strong having been bought on ebay (when I discovered it) I have recently bought the plastic bodied version again for spares, though it does work. Also got a beautiful Stellaphone version of the same and the Cosser version again for spares. The Philips Tape Recorder book is a must have for anyone interested in these machines (1963 reprinted 1965) Good Luck!

[@ricardlupus]

This particular model is surprisingly resilient. Also, it belongs to the early era when Philips used high quality rubber so the rubber parts usually last well past what could be expected of them.

[@flamencoprof]

I had one of these back in the late Seventies/early Eighties. It seemed pretty old to me at the time. I put my guitar into the mike input and with the lever switched to PA mode it was amazing when turned up to distortion! I figured out a hack to allow monitoring one track while recording on the other, so I could do lead, plus rhythm or bass using the guitar bass strings. I gave it away when someone gave me an old proper small guitar valve amp. I gave that away eventually in The Nineties. I wish I had kept both.

[@bobsbits5357]

hi in the late 80's i was using a 4 track mono one like this till it start to fall a part i still have the deck with out the casing i got 2 akai 4000ds decks the only thing you can't easy carry them around to play music like with the old 4 track reel to reel decks i have 2 1800ss decks i use around the house and work shop there is a need for deck like this i just got in to betacam sp fixing up i had all the not working in the south of the uk had alot of offers t take them of there hands still love reel to reel 1/2 inch and up is my best decks

[@gewe71]

Very nice machine. Thank you for the video.

[@ricardlupus]

Thanks for your comments. I am not such a Philips expert that I have tried to catalogue all the different versions. Certainly the styling changed over the years. Philips also made improvements to the design, indicated by the 'variant code' on the date label (e.g. AH 00 46/60 where AH indicates the location of manufacture (AH = Philips Hasselt I believe), 00 is the variant code, and 46/60 is the week/year of manufacture). I have seen the wooden and plastic versions co-exist in catalogues.

[@spm9153]

... for my 4th birthday in January 1970. I kept it until our moving from France to Belgium in 1978. Since then, I started collecting EL3541's and still have 5 of them. Interesting is the fact, that except from the different outside designs, the inside is also different on the various versions. I now have 1 "A", 1 "B", 2 "D" and 1 "E" models. Interesting is the fact, that both designs full plastic and wooden body (but in pigeon grey and blue, not the more modern design of your machine) must...

[@TheBeatlesInMyLife]

Hello ricardlupus. I have a Beatles channel in spanish and would like to know if i can use some parts of this video for a future program about The Beatles Star-Club Tapes, which where recorded in a similar tape recorder. Thank you for your kindly answer.

[@MrKrokkenoster]

I have two of these machines but a flood caused irreparable damage to both. Very reliable as you stated the single speed of 3 3/4 IPS was good for making up tapes when you still had only single playing records and you wanted to play them during a party of some sort. The rubbers are still in good nick and did not get gooey as later machines did. Especially Ferrograph and the four speed Philips of 10 years later! The microphone is a low impedance dynamic and not rubbish cheap crystal mics that were sold then with other tube type amateur machines.

[@ricardlupus]

So they were actually sold with a dynamic microphone? I would have thought the output level would have been too low, or did they have a built-in matching transformer? I have a microphone that I believe might have been delivered or at least was contemporary with the machine, but I have actually never opened it to see what is inside. BTW, it was not impossible to make high quality micorphones. The Tandberg TM-3 is a good example, although I certainly agree that a lot of crystal microphones were not.

[@sodablower]

I have a Philips Four-track EL3541 H that was my grandad's. Any idea if it's worth anything?...

[@TheMihail1]

А это мой аппарат Here you can see the work of my tape recorder kzbin.info/www/bejne/oXilXqV8aZijgpYи в разобранном виде можно посмотреть как работает механика and in disassembled form you can see how mechanics workskzbin.info/www/bejne/jWSThmR9gcR4o8U

[@firstlastname3865]

I am here because I read that this reel to reel is the model used in December 1962 to capture this little-known rock band called The Beatles perform at the Star Club in Hamburg, GER. From what I've read, the master tape of these live sessions was recorded in mono on a four-track and that it was possible to record each of the four tracks independently. So, one performance was captured in mono on one track. Another set was recorded on another track. Et cetera. Is this possible with this reel recorder?

[@ricardlupus]

Yes, certainly, although it should be pointed out that there are only two tracks per 'side' of the tape, for a total of four all in all.That means that there are only two positions on the track selector switch. When the tape is running in one direction, they are tracks 1 ad 3. After turning the tape over and playing in the opposite direction, they are tracks 2 and 4.

[@ricardlupus]

@@firstlastname3865 Fascinating story!

[@spm9153]

... have co-existed during the years: My 1st "A" was a full platic, my present "A" is in wood (like the one of "ShamelessMan" you can see on KZbin), the "B" is also in wood, 1 "D" is in wood, the other one is full plastic, while the "E" is again in wood. A and B versions have the same buttons, D and E have the same buttons as your machine. Inside, A and B look the same, with the only noticeable difference, that on the "A", the magic eye is "closed" when not in use for recording, while in ...

[@spm9153]

... I would be curious to know, if this problem has been resolved on your clearly much more modern "H"-type. Some questions still remain open to me: My father allways told me that the first machines were full pastic bodied, but as the sound was bad, the later models got a wooden body to improve the sound. In this case, the types A till E would have co-existed, maybe coming from different production units. Or, and that is what I believe that happened: The letters show the evolution of the ...

[@spm9153]

... the "B" machine and all the others, the magic eye is "open" when not in use. The "D" and "E" have a totally different inside as the "A" and "B". All mechanic parts are the same, although the white plastics are actually cream in the D and E, while they are really white in the A and B. The electric components are located on totally different places,with one big problem: in the D and E machines,one tube is situated so closed to the plastic bottom af the machine, that it melted a hole in it. ...

[@PhotoShutterLab]

i have that el3541 recorder also! but you can litterly record on 2 sides of the tape?

[@ricardlupus]

No, not in the literal sense; there is only magnetic coating on one side of the tape. But since you can only record on two of the available four tracks in one direction, and need to swap and turn the tape reels over to record the other two tracks, the common terminology is to 'record on the other side [of the tape]', even though it's just the reels that are being turned over. I think it's the analogy with 'turning a record over' that has led to this slightly confusing terminology.

[@spm9153]

Hallo ! I would like to give you some informations about the EL 3541. I have really grown up with it and consider my-self a fan of this machine. My father told me that he bought his EL3541A in mai 1958 and it costed at that time about 400 DM in Hamburg. He allways refered to it as Philips RK14, which was apparently the public name, at least in Germany and Holland. It was the original full plastic version in pigeon grey colour. I used to play with it from my 3 years on and got it as a present...

[@ricardlupus]

For some reason, in Germany, Philips' recorders all had an additional 'short' designation starting with RK. The numbering is not very logical either; the EL3541 became RK14 as you wrote, the EL3534 was RK66, EL3547 was RK36, and so on.

[@spm9153]

... EL3541 in the time, and both versions full plastic and wooden body have co-existed as a cheaper and luxury version of the same model. I hope you can find a way through this. Best regards. NOTE: YOU MUST READ MY COMMENTS STARTING WITH THE 1ST ONE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE.

[@MrTobysDad]

What did you use to replace the clutch's? The clutches are completely gone on my machine and they look like they might be made from cork.

[@ricardlupus]

Yes, they tend to deteriorate and crumble in such a way as to resemble cork, but they are actually made of some form of rubber or plastic. When they are new they're completely homogeneous and look a bit like resin with their reddish brown color. Some people have reported success replacing them with the kind of hard rubber used for door stops (cut to shape), but I've actually used cork on mine, not the kind of crumbly cork you'd use for coasters for instance, but solid cork which you can buy in bags for use in wine bottles. You then need to cut it into shape; I've cut mine into slightly oversize hexagons which are reasonably easy to push into place, rather than round which would require more precision.

[@MrTobysDad]

Thank you for your reply, I'm going to try using cork method you have described here. I have an plastic EL3541D with PW-00 48/61 on the date label although I have no idea what location PW refers too.

[@ricardlupus]

I've seen a couple of references to PW being Philips, Berlin (Germany), but it is not as clear cut as for instance WR which definitely means Philips Vienna (Wiener Radiofabrik).

[@MrTobysDad]

My wife's grandfather had an electrical shop in the late 50's/early 60's which was sponsored by Philips, so I'm sure that's where this unit came from. We also have a film from when my wife's grandfather moved his shop in 1959, which can be seen here kzbin.info/www/bejne/jJfLlIOHmbiDlaM . He was quite clever with all this old electrical stuff, during ww2 he used to illegally record radio broadcasts from england and distribute the recordings to people here in the netherlands. That was the only way people could find out what was happening with the war.

[@ricardlupus]

Fascinating story - and interesting video. Thanks!

[@rebeccaryder2590]

How did you switch it off like that?

[@ricardlupus]

Same way as I switched it on. The volume control knob on the left doubles as a power switch at its most counterclockwise position, so with a quick flick of the hand, the machine can be powered on or off.

[@rebeccaryder2590]

@@ricardlupus thanks, I just got one and I'm unsure how to work it properly. I appreciate the reply.

[@larryshaver3568]

is that a stereo machine?

[@ricardlupus]

The machine itself is mono only, but it is possible to connect an external amplifier for playing back stereo.

[@TheMihail1]

Старший брат... kzbin.info/www/bejne/oXilXqV8aZijgpY