This little guy bowled in as part of the mornings post today!
A generic very early 80's player this time sporting the somewhat dubious Binatone Emblem!
I must confess I felt sorry for this poor neglected stero & for £5 including postage, I took the plunger & here it is!!
Very grubby & encrusted with years of dirt & grime I wondered had I jumped over the gun buying this rather unusual player - Furthermore, after firing it up! Quack Quack Quack Quack Quaaaaack!! I was greeted with virtually no reel movement in rewind, forward was sort of working & play was just like a slug
I also noticed that there was no audio getting to the little Pcb nor was there any life from the ubiquitous "Talk Line" feature so I was a bit down in the heart & not warming to the little machine
Time to investigate: The belt was an interesting shape & was completely fooked A replacement soon got the tape transport working well in all modes :O
An easy enough fix there...........
Next, time to attach the "Straw" to a new can of Serviceoil & clean clean clean every switch & the volume sliders with some cotton buds soaked in servisol.......The volume sliders were gunked up & the dirtiest I've seen in a long time & the same with the orange "Talk Line" button linked to an electret microphone at the front!
In fact this switch was seized, I just hadn't realised it until looking inside the player!
Now, normally I would have just laughed at the very name Binatone, but I saw straight away that this was built in the era when even budget machines had more than half a chance of being quite good or indeed very good - I loved this short couple of years & have fond memories of many generics that were built to last just like this little guy!
Time to power up while apart & test him out!
"All Trumpets!!" Full operation restored & acceptable & balanced stereo sound once again filled my headphones not unlike the day it was opened by it's proud new owner!!
Oh, & the "Talk Line" now worked faultlessly too
All that was left to do was clean up the various parts of the casing before reassembling the little Binatone & listening to it as it happily worked in all modes just as it should!!
A nice little reminder of those golden days - & another true survivor from a now bygone age............
Et Voila:
https://youtu.be/bUAj6O0yyok
A generic very early 80's player this time sporting the somewhat dubious Binatone Emblem!
I must confess I felt sorry for this poor neglected stero & for £5 including postage, I took the plunger & here it is!!
Very grubby & encrusted with years of dirt & grime I wondered had I jumped over the gun buying this rather unusual player - Furthermore, after firing it up! Quack Quack Quack Quack Quaaaaack!! I was greeted with virtually no reel movement in rewind, forward was sort of working & play was just like a slug
I also noticed that there was no audio getting to the little Pcb nor was there any life from the ubiquitous "Talk Line" feature so I was a bit down in the heart & not warming to the little machine
Time to investigate: The belt was an interesting shape & was completely fooked
A replacement soon got the tape transport working well in all modes :OAn easy enough fix there...........
Next, time to attach the "Straw" to a new can of Serviceoil & clean clean clean every switch & the volume sliders with some cotton buds soaked in servisol.......The volume sliders were gunked up & the dirtiest I've seen in a long time & the same with the orange "Talk Line" button linked to an electret microphone at the front!
In fact this switch was seized, I just hadn't realised it until looking inside the player!
Now, normally I would have just laughed at the very name Binatone, but I saw straight away that this was built in the era when even budget machines had more than half a chance of being quite good or indeed very good - I loved this short couple of years & have fond memories of many generics that were built to last just like this little guy!
Time to power up while apart & test him out!
"All Trumpets!!" Full operation restored & acceptable & balanced stereo sound once again filled my headphones not unlike the day it was opened by it's proud new owner!!
Oh, & the "Talk Line" now worked faultlessly too
All that was left to do was clean up the various parts of the casing before reassembling the little Binatone & listening to it as it happily worked in all modes just as it should!!
A nice little reminder of those golden days - & another true survivor from a now bygone age............
Et Voila:
https://youtu.be/bUAj6O0yyok
takes me back... I'm inspired though by your writings Nic - just had a good browse on Ebay! If you put all your restorations in a book form i would probably buy it y'know. Educational & fun. Great for me as I'm just starting out on restoration road. This whole site is amazing of course. Will there be a 10 year birthday bash i wonder?
