Got given this today, my mate pulled it out of a skip because he knows I love stuff like this. Its a huuuge dictaphone from the 60's made by a company in England that went bust ages ago. Probably be worth something to someone somewhere but unless I can think of a decent use for it it'll have to go.
Haven't put batteries in it yet but it looks clean so I reckon it'll work, unfortunately it isn't an 8 track although there is a 1/4" jack socket on it as well as the microphone. Unless somebody comes up with a good idea the Microphone will be used for a harp mic and the rest will have to get slung out.
Thinking caps on Nation!
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Had a brainwave while looking at how to put a neck on this. See what you think. Instead of the no-go neck-through, could you bolt a neck to it along one side? I'm thinking, since its gonna be amplified, and you won't care how or even if it sounds acoustically, you could maybe attach a neck to the outside of the box, all along the long side right next to the play / record buttons. The neck would span the length of the case, just like a through job, but along the outside long edge. It would be equivalent to how many people put a neck on a canjo: just bolted to the side. heck, you could even make the neck out of an aluminium billet if you wanted to, paint it industrial green...The great big black condenser coil or battery case, or whatever it is, in the innards-exposed pic gave me the idea, as it is bolted to the frame. And this way, the buttons would be at your fingertips. Does this make sense?
Nice one Ron,that makes perfect sense. it would definitely work and would without a doubt be the easiest method.
Probably should have waited before I started cutting my mitre joints for an enclosure. Not far off finished.
This wont be ready any time soon, I've got a guy in mind to buy this when it's done but he likes nice guitars so the neck is going to have to be perfect and the enclosure will have to look nice.
Cheers for the ideas guys. This would probably be in the bin by now if you hadn't come up with em!
its already an amp .
just hook up a jack to the tape head .
even better, attach to the contact wires on the head , and leave the head connected, and you can record too .
Its got a jack socket and a microphone input already on it so in theory I could piggy back a pickup on to the existing jack, have another guitar plugged in to the jack and have the microphone as well. It'll be amazing if it works I'm just still figuring out exactly how to go about this. Definitely be the hardest build I've done if I go for it. Also I've only made uke's so far so this will be my first full size 3 or 4 string.
Think the hardest thing will be getting a pickup and a bridge on there, not a lot of room to work with!
in theroy , yes .. but i'm guessing the imput jacks go directly to "record" , .. and do not come out the speaker except on play back .
hence i suggested the head .
Oh so If I put the pickup to the cassette head it would also play out of the speaker if I pressed play?
If that would work this thing would be amazing! It's a pretty complex build though, getting everything to work should be interesting.
yeah , . you may not even have to press play
Then that's what I'll do! do you think it will run a bit of a bigger speaker, this one isn't much bigger than a piezo disc! The system runs on 6v so would it run an little 8ohm speaker? (If I can find room)
it should .. it there an aux/ line out jack ? or headphone jack ?
than may answer your question itself .
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