From: cd6699@notformail.com
On Thu, 11 Dec 2025 20:04:59 +0000, liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid
(Liz Tuddenham) wrote:
>Cursitor Doom wrote:
>
>[...]
>[Ferrograph Logic 7]
>
>> I bought mine for an absurdly low price at an auction of house
>> contents (just over a hundred quid) - but spent almost ten times that
>> amount on putting it back to original specification. ...
>
>Mine came from a scrapyard in the days when the BBC disposed of their
>unwanted gear by that route. I invested in a copy of the full sevice
>manual, which meant I could do all the repairs and servicing myself. I
>was doing transfers from discs for the UK National Sound Archive and had
>to meet their specifications: every tape had to begin with a set of
>line-up tones to confirm that the azimuth and speed were spot-on and the
>bias settings and equalisation were correct for that particular reel of
>tape. If the playback wasn't within their specified limits, the tape
>came back and I had to do the whole job again (and didn't get paid until
>it was satisfactory).
I'm deeply humbled. I had no idea you were so experienced and
venerable in this field.
I can barely lift my L7 these days; not getting any younger. As you
say, they're built like tanks. Not sure where they fit in the fidelity
pantheon of high-end tape players. Some say better than Revox and the
Swiss machines, others say not even close. But build-wise, they're
virtually indestructible. Studio quality? Not quite, perhaps. But what
do I know?
>Other transcriptors rather looked down on the Ferrographs as being
>dated, clunky battleships (one commented "You could play a length of
>bicycle chain on that thing!"), but I found they had been designed by
>people who actually had to use them professionally in arduous
>conditions, not by salesmen in plush showrooms. A tape path that looked
>so easy to thread in some other machines turned ito a contortionist's
>nightmare when it came to fast cut-and-splice editing because parts of
>the swish-looking casing got in the way of the tape when you needed to
>lift it out of the heads. The Ferrograph *was* clunky - and all the
>better for it.
>
>[...]
>>
>> Well, it's all new to me having to deal with vintage tape. Back in the
>> day, the tapes we had were still young and fresh and this issue simply
>> never arose (not in my personal experience at any rate). My serviceman
>> reckons it's a good idea to use IPA intially, then polish the heads
>> with Autosol to get rid of any invisible remaining residue and it's an
>> approach I now plan to stick to in future!
>
>Try not to leave the IPA on the pinch wheel for any length of time, as I
>have heard it can harden the rubber. If the pinch wheel tyre ever
>starts to go badly wrong (e.g. mushy), you can get away with cutting the
>rubber off and stacking 3 'O'-rings on the metal core until such time
>as you can get a proper replacement. Don't get the mush on your skin,
>it is dangerous.
Ferrograph fucked up badly at some point in their history as you no
doubt know by using some weird compound on their pinch wheels which
turned into a thick black gum which proceeded to jam the works up and
make the most awful and hard to remove mess inside all the moving
parts. I've had mine replaced with a compound which is compatible with
IPA. The "dangerous mush" - would that be rich in hydrofluoric acid,
perchance?
>I have never used Auto-Sol on the heads but I imagine it would be very
>effective - possibly a little too effective for anything other than
>occasional use in extreme circumstances.
It's a very mild abrasive akin to toothpaste. My servicer has been
doing F'graphs for almost 60 years now and recommends it, so I think
you'll find it's safe enough!
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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