mine was original a three tracker with another channel of course and a simul sync switcher. it had been modified to be a 1/2″ quarter track stereo machine with low impedance heads. i stripped that all away. the top space will be a monitor / headphone / alignment tone box. i want the machine to be kinda self sufficient. much easier to use in the studio.
the record eq is now only 1 vari cap mounted right in the record amp.simple and no extra wiring sensitivity noise. same with playback eq. the hi freq set is now mounted direct at the pb amp.
this aint pretty but its a picture of my star earth modification.this circuit board design must have been ampex’s first attempt…at circuit board design. and i reckon they got it all wrong. the negative line went kind of like in a chain thru all the different amplifier and filter circuits. frigging mess. so i cut prints and removed the several grounding spots and generally separated all those negative/to be grounded/shields circuits and then star earthed them to a tag fitted just by the playback amp. plain ugly … but hey!. the sound is quite a heap cleaner and fatter. with no hum and ‘hard’ buzzy noises. with a’no input and full! volume playback amp listen’ the (very low) noise is now airey clean and friendly. uite a lot different from the bitchy grubby crackling buzzing that was. the whole machine now sounds so much more fat. really impressive dynamics and clarity.black is very black. and when you decide to overblow/saturate… it is effortless and large. the electronics doesnt distort. only the tape.heres the ampex virtual museum if you’d like to find out about ampex history. |
- ghetto blaster from hell
- ampli-fire tubenator 16