Tape Trail Reel to reel, cassette and other analogue tape formats.

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Re: Open real pre-recorded tapes by the dozen

Posted by Marantzguy (P) on February 20, 2007 at 15:53:59

In Reply to: Open real pre-recorded tapes by the dozen posted by Marantzguy on February 5, 2007 at 12:26:03:

Hi, all:

As a little follow-up to my original note, I wanted those of you interested in vintage open reel tapes (4-track mostly) to read a bit about the results of my auditioning the stack of tapes I recently acquired.

First of all, despite my doubts about the quality of 4-track open reel pre-recorded tapes in general, which is based upon my own personal experience in purchasing some of these in the sixties, when they were NEW at that time, I offer the following observations:

1.) With a couple of minor exceptions, these tapes which were duplicated around 1959 and the early sixties, seem to be of decent quality. The previous owner failed to add leader on his reels, but once I did so and started to play them, I was FLOORED by the quality of what I had found recently.

2.) Among the best sounding of these tapes were some issued on Vanguard (Weavers at Carnegie Hall, Vol. 2), some on Elektra (Theodore Bikel live at Town Hall) and most of all, some reels issued by World Pacific (formerly Pacific Jazz) out of Southern California. The World Pacific material by The MasterSounds, is exemplary, if not astonishing. Richard Bock was an impressive sound engineer, to say the least. I put him right up there with Rudy Van Gelder, if you do not mind my saying so!

3.) A couple of these reels, produced or manufactured between 1959 and around 1961, squeal while going through my ReVox A-77. They do not leave excessive residue, but I was a bit surprised at this happening. I suppose the only cure is to bake them? I am not about to do this, however, since I do not own a convection oven and do not plan to obtain one simply for two or three reels among many others.

So, bottom line....I was astonished!

There is a reel featuring Kid Ory performing W.C. Handy compositions and it was issued on the Verve label, probably around 1960-61. This one reel will knock your socks off, literally! Among the best sounding open reel tapes I have run across over many years, I had the utmost respect for one particular tape. This was a 2-track 5" sampler spool issued in 1957 by the folks at Stereophony label, featuring Dixieland music by Doc Evans and his band.

This item is much sought-after among collectors of 2-track material, but the Kid Ory 4-track on Verve is as good or better, considering the quality of the players and overall realism of the performance captured on the recording.

I was in Dixieland HEAVEN when I played that reel yesterday!

When the dust has settled on these, I probably will want to offer them for sale, since I am running out of space. I will transfer them to high resolution media and then probably just "let go" of them for collectors who appreciate good sound when they hear it.

Look for them either on the classified hereabouts or otherwise, on Audiogon in some category.

Richard Links
Berkeley, CA

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