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so i bought this tape reel today...

akoako https://soundcloud.com/a-ko 3,413 Posts
edited September 2007 in Strut Central
but i havent listened yet. some dude at an antique store (where i just bought a ton of antiques) was telling me about this reel-to-reel he had for sale, i wasnt that interested in it...but then he was like "it belonged to this all black rock band with a white drummer in the 60s, their tape is still on the machine"...anyway i bought the whole machine just to get the tape (only $20) and im pretty excited to listen. if its worth talking about i'll post back. anybody else run into a situation like this?

  Comments

  • Mr. CasualMr. Casual 953 Posts
    Thats some lucky shit... I love getting antiquities... but in LA there are a lot of frauds selling shit for hundreds of dollars....
  • bobbydeebobbydee 849 Posts
    I got a box of tapes with my teac reel to reel with the name "triangular" written on it. I was hoping it was going to be some new age private boner, but it turns out it was all nature sounds and pan flute.

  • bull_oxbull_ox 5,056 Posts
    If its a decent, functional reel player that alone for $20 was a deal....
  • akoako https://soundcloud.com/a-ko 3,413 Posts
    If its a decent, functional reel player that alone for $20 was a deal....

    ehh, i got about 2 or 3 reel to reel's for about a buck each this summer...they arent totally uncommon here i guess. i actually got a really tiny sony one at the same place that is fucking AWESOME...if my camera worked i'd take pics
  • johmbolayajohmbolaya 4,472 Posts
    anybody else run into a situation like this?

    Not as good. I did find once an 8-track where someone was singing over a Kansas song. I put it on one of my old tapes, and I hear that it has been circulating for awhile. Not sure if it's one and the same, if anyone knows let me know, because I most likely have the original 8-track (a Hawkwind tape).

    I did find a reel which began with two sisters singing "Go Away Little Girl", and it sounds nice and everything until the recording is interrupted and one of the girls starts singing on how her sister Renee is a pig. Apparently Renee hit her with an ice cube, and now feels the need to call her a big, fat, ugly pig. I did save it as an MP3 and I may have it around somewhere, if anyone wants to hear it let me know and I'll track it down.

    EDIT: Quadraphonic reel tapes are the major scores, especially if they are still sealed. They can go for $150+, depending on who it is. But to be able to buy a machine and find an unknown session, rehearsal, or live show, or even a radio broadcast, that's the high quality hoo-haa.

    Or radio spots.

  • bobbydeebobbydee 849 Posts
    anybody else run into a situation like this?

    Not as good. I did find once an 8-track where someone was singing over a Kansas song. I put it on one of my old tapes, and I hear that it has been circulating for awhile. Not sure if it's one and the same, if anyone knows let me know, because I most likely have the original 8-track (a Hawkwind tape).

    I did find a reel which began with two sisters singing "Go Away Little Girl", and it sounds nice and everything until the recording is interrupted and one of the girls starts singing on how her sister Renee is a pig. Apparently Renee hit her with an ice cube, and now feels the need to call her a big, fat, ugly pig. I did save it as an MP3 and I may have it around somewhere, if anyone wants to hear it let me know and I'll track it down.

    Hahaha that would be great!
  • akoako https://soundcloud.com/a-ko 3,413 Posts
    well, im listening now that i finally got it untangled. either:

    a. the guy didnt know what he was talking about
    b. i havent rewound far enough
    c. the stuff is on the other side.

    hm.......
  • akoako https://soundcloud.com/a-ko 3,413 Posts
    a. the guy didnt know what he was talking about

    dammit! oh well. now i have a tape of jazz shows taped off the radio.
  • johmbolayajohmbolaya 4,472 Posts
    a. the guy didnt know what he was talking about

    dammit! oh well. now i have a tape of jazz shows taped off the radio.

    Aaah, but does it have a white drummer on it?

    Does the DJ give out call letters?
  • johmbolayajohmbolaya 4,472 Posts
    anybody else run into a situation like this?

    Not as good. I did find once an 8-track where someone was singing over a Kansas song. I put it on one of my old tapes, and I hear that it has been circulating for awhile. Not sure if it's one and the same, if anyone knows let me know, because I most likely have the original 8-track (a Hawkwind tape).

    I did find a reel which began with two sisters singing "Go Away Little Girl", and it sounds nice and everything until the recording is interrupted and one of the girls starts singing on how her sister Renee is a pig. Apparently Renee hit her with an ice cube, and now feels the need to call her a big, fat, ugly pig. I did save it as an MP3 and I may have it around somewhere, if anyone wants to hear it let me know and I'll track it down.

    Hahaha that would be great!

    It has been found. It is an "excerpt", since when I made the MP3 I didn't want to put up the full recording, but it's the bulk of it. I'll have it on my blog later tonight.
  • hammertimehammertime 2,389 Posts
    I got a box of reel-to-reels for $12 at an antique store a few years ago, and inside were about 5 demo tapes of a Toledo garage band called God's Children. I then had to buy a reel-to-reel player to listen to them. Unfortunately they weren't anything very special, run of the mill covers of Route 66, Midnight Hour, Satisfaction, etc. I sold one for like $50, haven't bothered to listen to the rest.
  • djsheepdjsheep 3,620 Posts
    where's young einstein...

    didn't he find some old NWA type business on a multi-track once...

    you HAVE to record that shit to mp3 hommie. I'd paypal you for it.

    b
  • BamboucheBambouche 1,484 Posts



    I acquired boxes and boxes of tapes that were supposedly blank. Out of curiosity I listened to them and discovered they contained years of audio letters between two families, recorded in the '60s. A terribly engaging (if sometimes long-winded) peek into the private lives of people who loved one another. All sorts of cliffhangers: "Tonight we're making goose," "There's this guy at work who I am counseling to accept Jesus," "This is Cliff, I collect stamps, dad says you could send me one from Alaska," "Dad is almost done installing a heater," "I took this here portable tape machine to the football game," etc.

    I listen to them in my spare time and dream to one day create a CD's worth of surreally detourned excerpts.



















    And, this thread wouldn't be complete without a mention of the motherlode of all tape finds.

  • ElectrodeElectrode Los Angeles 3,127 Posts
    Nice. Last year I found a couple of reels. One was the B side to the first Arthur Gee LP on Tumbleweed and the second was an unreleased album, complete with handwritten lyric sheets on school paper, from '71 by Two Guns, a country rock band who had an only record on Capricorn eight years later. It's nothing much, but there's an uptempo break song called "Best Move"

    http://www.sendspace.com/file/3lwwm0
    (Complete reel, recorded by an ex-coworker who owns a country music studio)
  • johmbolayajohmbolaya 4,472 Posts
    Hahaha that would be great!

    Here it is:
    http://jbookmusic.blogspot.com/2007/09/thrift-store-archives-mystery-tape-reel.html
  • Controller_7Controller_7 4,052 Posts
    about 4 years ago I was walking my friend's dog back to her house. I wouldn't have been in that neighborhood if it wasn't my dog walking day. I looked down a side street and I saw all kinds of records lined up against the wall on the sidewalk. I start looking through them and I find some cool stuff. I didn't really have any money on me, so I am doing budget pulls, only really getting what I can grab. I figured they'd be $1 each or something.
    I grabbed a bunch of hip hop 12 inches, including the Hollywood ep on 75 Girls, a Tuff Crew 12 inch, the MF911 LP (ced gee) and a test pressing for "Code of the Streets/Speak Ya Clout." I was excited, but had that "shit, I don't have much cash on me" feeling. I pull my selections and was about to ask the group of guys hanging out near the records how much they were.
    Next thing I know, they walk off. I am left alone with all of the records. All mine, all free. I grabbed a ton of shit, as much as I could carry. I went back and grabbed even more. Tons of sealed new age duds. Some random bay area stuff. It turned out to be a recording studio that went out of business or was cleaning house. They dumped all of their records out. I made about 3 trips back and then discovered the dumpster was full of reel to reel tapes. There were tons of them, some 1/2" and lots of 2". I went home and got my granny cart and loaded it up with reels. I was hoping I'd find something cool. I found one that had "Dan Nakamura" listed as producer, but it turned out to be some really cheesy rock band he had worked with. I never got to listen to any of them, just did research. The reels sat in the garage for a year at least and I mentioned them to a co-worker. His cousin ended up buying all of them off of me to use for recording. I should have grabbed more. I gave him a deal and sold about 9 of them for $100, which he was happy with. I wish I had taken all of them. I could have made a fair amount of money.

    I just googled the recording studio and apparently they are still open. I guess they were just cleaning house. They are on 19th St. in the Mission.
  • bobbydeebobbydee 849 Posts
    Hahaha that would be great!

    Thanks for that, the blog is a great read too.
  • Tuff_GongTuff_Gong 627 Posts
    Not exactly something that would interest anybody else, but my dad has a reel-to-reel from the 60's and a bunch of old albums on reel format, and then a few tapes that he recorded himself. When I was a teenager and really getting into music I wanted to check out all my dad's reels so I started listening to them. Most of it was just compilations of music off of various records and other reels. One tape though, I put it on and it was a recording of my dad and a friend of his sometime back in the 60's, probably when my dad was in college, just screwing around on the tape. That's no big deal, but at one part they're talking to my dad's parents -- my grandparents. That wouldn't be a big deal except that my grandfather died before I was born so by total luck I happened upon an old tape and actually heard my grandfather talking. That was kind of surreal.
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