Vintage Wards Airline Reel-to-Reel Recorder (with picture!)

Get that song on tape! Errr... disk?
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amanda
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Vintage Wards Airline Reel-to-Reel Recorder (with picture!)

Post by amanda » Sat Dec 22, 2007 12:46 pm

After my grandparents passed away I was given my grandfather's old reel-to-reel and tapes he had recorded.  (I was going to school for recording technology at the time.)
Anyways I thought you'd like to see it, it's a neat piece of gear. 
Sadly the playback head no longer works but I was able to get most of the audio off of the tapes.  It was an interesting process - my school didn't have a reel-to-reel that played back at a slow enough speed so we took the audio into Pro Tools and pitch shifted and slowed down to make it sound right.  Mostly recordings of the family singing, organ playing, and church services but it was a lot of fun.  Plus, I got a bunch of crazy/creepy analogue noises.

So do you guys have any old recording gear?


Specs:
Wards Airline
Solid State Tape Recorder
Model No.GEN-3659A
made in Japan

Image
"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." - Aldous Huxley
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northern_dirt
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Re: Vintage Wards Airline Reel-to-Reel Recorder (with picture!)

Post by northern_dirt » Sat Dec 22, 2007 12:52 pm

I just sold my Otari 8 track MX 50/50 about 5 months ago..

I went from a complete Analoguephile to a Digitalophile..

Even selling off all my vinyl (only sold 3 45s so far.. but got $350 for them.. got abotu 1000 to go)

Only vintage gear I have is a Hammond Porta B, Yamaha YC 20, Gibson les paul deluxe, Gibson les paul special..
Vintage to me is anything older than 1978.. the year I was born in...
'cleanest, best pleasure'
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amanda
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Re: Vintage Wards Airline Reel-to-Reel Recorder (with picture!)

Post by amanda » Sat Dec 22, 2007 1:33 pm

northern_dirt wrote: I just sold my Otari 8 track MX 50/50 about 5 months ago..

I went from a complete Analoguephile to a Digitalophile..

Even selling off all my vinyl (only sold 3 45s so far.. but got $350 for them.. got abotu 1000 to go)

Only vintage gear I have is a Hammond Porta B, Yamaha YC 20, Gibson les paul deluxe, Gibson les paul special..
Vintage to me is anything older than 1978.. the year I was born in...
Cool
I've actually been going in the opposite direction, trying to build-up a vinyl collection.  I've got a long way to go though  :P
"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." - Aldous Huxley
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Re: Vintage Wards Airline Reel-to-Reel Recorder (with picture!)

Post by northern_dirt » Sat Dec 22, 2007 1:45 pm

amanda wrote:
northern_dirt wrote: I just sold my Otari 8 track MX 50/50 about 5 months ago..

I went from a complete Analoguephile to a Digitalophile..

Even selling off all my vinyl (only sold 3 45s so far.. but got $350 for them.. got abotu 1000 to go)

Only vintage gear I have is a Hammond Porta B, Yamaha YC 20, Gibson les paul deluxe, Gibson les paul special..
Vintage to me is anything older than 1978.. the year I was born in...
Cool
I've actually been going in the opposite direction, trying to build-up a vinyl collection.  I've got a long way to go though  :P

Vinyl was fun, but it got expensive... my 600 rating on ebay 90% records..

Also it takes up too much room... and CDs are easier and cheaper

Analog gear also has one HUGE downside... maintenance..
(this plus cost, limited userability, reliability, space, etc etc)
Though definatly gives you some bragging rights and cred.
'cleanest, best pleasure'
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amanda
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Re: Vintage Wards Airline Reel-to-Reel Recorder (with picture!)

Post by amanda » Sat Dec 22, 2007 3:47 pm

northern_dirt wrote:

Vinyl was fun, but it got expensive... my 600 rating on ebay 90% records..

Also it takes up too much room... and CDs are easier and cheaper

Analog gear also has one HUGE downside... maintenance..
(this plus cost, limited userability, reliability, space, etc etc)
Though definatly gives you some bragging rights and cred.
Definitely. 
I'd love to get the Airline running but I can't imagine how hard it would be to find the parts I'd need and how much they would cost.
I'll stick with Pro Tools  ;) 
"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." - Aldous Huxley
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Re: Vintage Wards Airline Reel-to-Reel Recorder (with picture!)

Post by northern_dirt » Sat Dec 22, 2007 7:00 pm

amanda wrote:
northern_dirt wrote:

Vinyl was fun, but it got expensive... my 600 rating on ebay 90% records..

Also it takes up too much room... and CDs are easier and cheaper

Analog gear also has one HUGE downside... maintenance..
(this plus cost, limited userability, reliability, space, etc etc)
Though definatly gives you some bragging rights and cred.
Definitely. 
I'd love to get the Airline running but I can't imagine how hard it would be to find the parts I'd need and how much they would cost.
I'll stick with Pro Tools  ;) 
I used t track drums into the MX 5050 and then record them into my digi 001..
'cleanest, best pleasure'
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Re: Vintage Wards Airline Reel-to-Reel Recorder (with picture!)

Post by ugly casanova » Thu Dec 27, 2007 6:03 am

northern_dirt wrote: Vintage to me is anything older than 1978.. the year I was born in...
this would mean that everything older than 1988 is vintage to me... ;D
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Re: Vintage Wards Airline Reel-to-Reel Recorder (with picture!)

Post by northern_dirt » Thu Dec 27, 2007 8:14 am

Killamangiro* wrote:
northern_dirt wrote: Vintage to me is anything older than 1978.. the year I was born in...
this would mean that everything older than 1988 is vintage to me... ;D
Whipper snapper..
'cleanest, best pleasure'
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eyesadrift
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Re: Vintage Wards Airline Reel-to-Reel Recorder (with picture!)

Post by eyesadrift » Tue Jan 15, 2008 10:03 pm

neat id love to have an old reel to reel machine
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