Take a look at this deck

mep said:

The seller claims he bought this deck new and it only has 10 hours on it. Take a look at the left hub and see the damage that was done to the face plate by a reel slapping against it. I'm not buying the 10 hours of use story.

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?misccass&1329509518&/Tandburg-TD20A-

Click to expand...

Mark,

Your obersvation is correct. It must have been very hard 10 hours... The reel rub is not only on the supply side but you can also see it on the takeup side with top edge of the front plate rubbed down to the metal level from the reels digging in during that rough 10 hours. I can only guess of the head conditions...

A friend has the same model. He had clean the head in four years... he could't figure out how to get to the heads. So he had no idea what conditions the heads are in either.

Not that I'm on this guy's side BUT whoever used it could be a dork and used a very warped reel, and let it play regardless of the "scraping sound" coming from the deck. Otherwise it looks pretty clean. I do have a problem with the asking price. Maybe $350 to $400 would be more like it. But then I get hit with some kind of "sticker shock" every day. The TD20 is a GREAT sounding deck - highly recommended!

Charles

Charles, what's your opinion on the old Tandberg 74b? I know it's a 4 track consumer grade deck etc, but I have one in bits out in the garage, I'm wondering what the quality of the preamp section and onboard el84 amp is?
Lotsa nice Telefunkens were in there, that's for sure!!!

Gotta say that I have a fondness in my heart for most things Tandberg. Had a few of their cassette players and reels including the TD20A. All sounded fantastic at the time - including their GREAT tuner (the last one - can't remember the model number).

DO remember the 74 and it's variants. If I had one I'd try to get it going and see how it holds up today - probably very nicely. As I (also) remember from the manual, the TUBE circuitry looked "tasty" - am I right that it used some kind of pressure pad or back-mounted head arrangement?

If you do go to the trouble to "restore" it, PLEASE let us know the results!

AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL

Charles

Oh - and if you can't find a use for those Tele's, please give me a jingle.

Ha!! The Tele's are all but gone! One (el84) is doing duty in my little single ended guitar amp, one of the 12ax7s is in my almarro right now (Sketches of Spain... 7.5ips 4 track that sounds D$%m good) and the other 2 have found a local home!
I do have one 12au7 kicking around though ;-)!!
I will have to give that deck some attention, cosmetically, it's beautiful, the teak mid-century case, and plastic cover are intact and nearly flawless, and the machine itself is gorgeous!
The fellow who sold it to me was less than scrupulous, however, as he sold it as a 'perfectly working' deck. That's what I get for buying off of craigslist.
It's gonna be a 'bear' to work on... makes the nagra look like a walk in the park.