BACKGROUND:
I am very much "into" sustainability, a complete tape machine represents a LOT of embedded energy and to waste that embedded energy is a very bad thing, even worse is to bury it in landfill and subsequently poison our environment!
What is embedded energy?
Embedded energy is a measurement of the total energy that was used to create a component, a module or a complete piece of equipment originally.
Unfortunately I have a dilemma with these head assemblies, which machine had I extracted them from! Eh gads man ... I forgot to record the machine I extracted these from many many moons ago! Over the years I have dealt with many R2R machines so these could have been from some UK, European (but not Studer, they do not look like them) or even something Japanese ...
There is a paper symbol attached to the top of the head casing but I cannot identify who that manufacturer may be ... Google image search could not identify it either.
Consider these heads as being the basis for some experimentation, not to service a particular piece of equipment.
Some ideas for their use could be ... use in a custom made spring delay/reverb unit. A long time ago I saw a creation from the ABC workshops using an extremely long steel wire, around 2 metres in length! One end had the tape machine read/write head and the other was the "exciter" - the engineer told me that the idea was the source was fed into the exciter (like a small electromagnet) and this created physical movement of this extremely long length of wire. At the far end was the R/W head which changed the wire physical movement back into an audio signal. Nice long delays were achieved but Oh dear, so sensitive to any sort of physical movement around it. Big ticks for ingenuity though.
Another possible use is to create a custom designed tape loop delay or echo system. Sure, the concept is very "old skool" but hey! it's analog (for the purist who detests digital processing)
Enough of the chat, here is what I can tell you about these heads
REEL TO REEL READ WRITE HEAD ASSEMBLY
Two Channel
1/4" format tape
Head face(s) look to be clean and unscratched
Rear solder terminal pins are also in good shape
Base plate is supplied, this could be useful for mounting in someone else's wonderfully clever creation.
I have made some basic electrical tests on each channel
114.8 Ohm DC
46.3mH
Between the two pins for each channel is a central pin which I thought was connected to the outer head can or base plate - it is NOT ... this pin would appear to be something like a Ground shield connection and it has no electrical connection to either channel nor the case.
DIMENSIONS:
Pretty standard looking RW heads, measuring
10mm wide x 14.6mm height x 10.95 depth
COSMETIC CONDITION:
USED
Clean
Faces look to be fine, clean with no scratching and bright n shiny
The base plate has been left screwed onto the underside of the head assembly, removable if desired.
All solder pins are in good condition and none have been "shortened"
I have now packed these heads into individual sealed plastic packets and they now patiently wait for some enterprising person to make use of them in the "creation" they have dreamed up ("It's alive It's alive" ... Oh dear I have been watching too many Frankenstein movies!)
