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#Scully dubplate machine professional
And when customers want you to price-match the folks cutting on picnic plates, upgrading to another mono head isn't cost-effective. The Scully 280 Series Recorder/Reproducer is a professional magnetic tape recorder of the highest quality, designed primarily for use in recording studios, broadcast stations and other applications requiring exacting performance specifications. Unfortunately the head broke last year (failed armature spring) and I haven't been able to fix it. Here's a mono lathe cut I did with a Presto 1D head from circa 1949. Compare with the size of the internal workings of a Westrex head - one of the largest stereo feedback heads made. That particular setup appears to be homemade, and the moving mass in the cutterhead is absolutely enormous so I'm skeptical of what sort of frequency response it has. Something cut onto a picnic plate with an old home record cutter with a resharpened gramophone needle is going to sound like poop on a stick from the get-go. An acetate (dubplate) cut on a professional Scully or Neumann lathe with a stereo feedback cutterhead will sound better than a pressed record, at least for the first couple of dozen times it's played. It was a little painful to dumpster the carcasses I felt a little better after K told me that someone shortly thereafter pulled them from the dumpster, shouting excitedly that they were brass, and therefore valuable for salvage.It depends what they're being cut on. I have been waiting for the right solid-state pro-audio project to present itself, and I think it found me. Once I can track down the schematic for the 280, I will clone the mic pre-amp circuit, and build a few stand-alone 280 clone pre-amps using the original transformers, meters, and whatever other cosmetic parts that I salvaged. I do feel a little guilty about chopping up these classic units, made with care here in BPT but I have a plan to earn back the audio karma. Many of the 280s also had clean XLR jacks, lamp holders, and API VU meters. Three of the 280s also had a UTC 0-1 500:50K input transformer. I have yet to find a UTC A-series transformer that did not work, so I am reasonably optimistic. The only other option: Chop it up.Įach of the 280 chassis contain a number of excellent hermetically-sealed transformers: a UTC A18, UTC A39, and a very large Freed 600:600 (split) transformer. So i was not about to risk a major biohazzard restoring this stuff. None of it seems to have been maintained since 1990, and everything was generally filled with dog hair, dead bugs, and bits of food that (presumably) mice secreted away in there. How about the rest of that stuff though? It all dates to around 1965-1970. Good God.Īnyhow, seems like this thing deserves another chance. And what recordings were made using these devices? How about most of the classic STAX recordings. The 3761 was used in order to mix four microphones onto one track of an Ampex tape machine (in fact, it gets its power from the tape machine). It is a four-into-one microphone level mixer which uses the excellent 5879 pentode tube, and some of the best input transformers that UTC (or anyone else) ever made. The 3761 is not a particularly useful device, but it does have an incredible pedigree. It needs a complete restoration (nearly every part and connector is rotten), but the chassis/faceplate and UTC transformers are intact, so I think I will give it another life. The most exciting piece is this Ampex 3761. This meant leaving the transports behind and just taking the electronics portions of a few of the machines. My truck is currently out-of-commission awaiting some parts, so I was limited to taking just the stuff that would fit in my VW. I think that there were about four Scully 280 2-track machines, several Ampex 351s and PR10s, a 16-track scully 2″ machine, and a few other odds and ends.
#Scully dubplate machine full
Wikipedia has no information on this classic manufacturer in fact, they incorrectly identify it being from ‘bridgewater connecticut.’ I’ve been slowly accumulating archival material on this company and hope to have a comprehensive treatment together at some point.Įarlier this week I bought a full truck load of old Scully and Ampex tape machines for a few bucks (no joke). Scully was based in our fair city of Bridgeport CT. Scully was one of the main US makers of professional multi-track tape machines through the 1970s.