Try to make it work again Studer B62

[tony ky ma]

Since to play with R2R two years ago, have not look at vinyl, cables amps anymore, my crazy friend who like to play game on Ebay, whatever Telefunken, Studer in good price, he will go for them and he just bought a Studer B62 from England, but the packing was very poor,carton box was broken when received, you can see from pictures, the top plate lost a piece, and the one of the repro amp's lock missed and the worst thing is it can't work,
B62 has a old style mechanic transport control by relays but with same amps of A80, if it can work again that can compare with A80 to see the mechanical difference will effect to the sound by how much. thank to this happening that I got a chance to learn how to fix the problem of B62
lucky there are two more locks just for use of covering empty space that I can use for to replace the repro amp's missing lock plate but need to drill holes for calibration ,
the seller said it is on working condition but I don't know what cause the problem , after spend a week to study those relays' operating, I found out 3 points were unconnected so now it is back to alive again with the cost less than 1K$ it is not bad, I will tell the result after compare with A80
tony ma

 

[RogerD]

Hi Tony,

What a beautiful deck and a shame that it was damaged in shipment. Shipping damage is anybody's worst nightmare and because of that possibility I crate and foam these RTR's. I'm going to say prayers and cross fingers when I have my MR70 shipped.

Can the piece be welded or epoxied back on? do you have it? Makes me sick.

 

[tony ky ma]

Hi Tony,

What a beautiful deck and a shame that it was damaged in shipment. Shipping damage is anybody's worst nightmare and because of that possibility I crate and foam these RTR's. I'm going to say prayers and cross fingers when I have my MR70 shipped.

Can the piece be welded or epoxied back on? do you have it? Makes me sick.

Hi Roger
That piece already gone somewhere in the way from England

 

[U47]

I have a friend who has a B62 Mark I with like new butterfly heads and a cool flight case for sale. He bought it on impulse and already owned 15 decks. It is located in Connecticut, if anyone is interested. They are quite rare in the US. John Lennon used one with his beloved Neumann mics on one of his albums(Imagine?). Beatles collectors would love one of these

Regarding MR-70s- I brokered 3 for my old tape mentor about 15 years ago. I spent dozens of hours listening to his MR-70 over a 10 year period. Brings back good memories. He had a technician come in about every 3 weeks from NYC to keep one up and running. It was a fantastic sounding deck, but a bit like keeping on old English 50s sports car in top shape. Not for the beginner

R Brown
Portland Oregon

 

[tony ky ma]

This B62 old machine not only damaged in shipping, it's mechanism and electronics also in problem, In the day it landed with a broken box, body was hurt, when power on, only one indicator works (4 there) and function completely dead, after fixed to make it run again and sing but found heads need relap, tension control are not normal , also recording not working too, the record amp look like OK but the EQ card ( come with CCIR only ) is in wrong value resistors and reverse position of 7.5 vs 15 of speed, I don't know who make that wrong, Studer or last owner, anyway I made a correct NAB EQ card for it already, still can't record because the oscillator card doesn't work, if the coil is done that mean need another card for it, not easy to get that spare part of coil, after checked the coil's terminals , no open circuit, problem is not there, then I replaced all transistors, still not working, after I looked at the A80's manual ( same circuit) there were marked dc voltage on each stages but B60'manual didn't. then I found a little Tantalum cap is short circuit, that you can see in the picture I put it beside a replaced bigger cap, usually Tantalum cap is a solid type's cap no solution inside, short circuit is first time to me. now it can do recording, but I am still wondering what will be the next problem,
tony ma

 

[jdza]

I recently bought a B62 ,mainly to add to the collection as i do not care for its looks. What a delightful surprise this machine has been. As it shares its electronics with the early A80R I expected it to sound similar but somehow less accomplished. It does not sound anything like the A80,having a much more lively and upfront presentation-a true Rock and Roll machine. I could immediately see why John Lennon so loved his. It has that same open crisp sound that characterised the Beatles' sound.

Swapping cards between the 2 machines the A80 has a relaxed huge rock solid presentation that the B62 cannot match while the B62 fires darts of sonic information. Somehow I keep expecting it to sound harsh and bright but it never does

 

[tony ky ma]

I recently bought a B62 ,mainly to add to the collection as i do not care for its looks. What a delightful surprise this machine has been. As it shares its electronics with the early A80R I expected it to sound similar but somehow less accomplished. It does not sound anything like the A80,having a much more lively and upfront presentation-a true Rock and Roll machine. I could immediately see why John Lennon so loved his. It has that same open crisp sound that characterised the Beatles' sound.

Swapping cards between the 2 machines the A80 has a relaxed huge rock solid presentation that the B62 cannot match while the B62 fires darts of sonic information. Somehow I keep expecting it to sound harsh and bright but it never does

I guess the main difference is the different heads, even at the same machine A80, just change the head to the butterfly head with the same amp will sound different too
tony ma

 

[c1ferrari]

Best of luck

Tony with your B62...I'm pulling for you
Reading this thread arouses my desire for more machines and source material
What would Ki say

 

[tony ky ma]

I brought the machine to Roger's house ( the tech) for service, heads' relap is done, cost 4 working hours because old model needs to make a bracket to hold for lapping. and also make a special tool to take heads off from head block. supply reel's tension adjust needs a gauge, old style gauge was spring type, today's tension gauge is digital, wow & flutter is the main issue of the day spend too many time in this matter, finally found cause by the tension arm, spring lost it's sensitivity by the time's aging . no chance to get a NOS part, the only way is without the supply reel side's arm in playback or recording, fast forward or rewind should have both on . this is the final decision for the machine and it came with no case only the mechanic, I made a holder and a cover for it, give it has a kind of new looking, machine sold for 400 Euro shipping charged almost the same, plus heads relap and service cost $700, future mods not count yet worth or not ?
tony ma

 

[RogerD]

I brought the machine to Roger's house ( the tech) for service, heads' relap is done, cost 4 working hours because old model needs to make a bracket to hold for lapping. and also make a special tool to take heads off from head block. supply reel's tension adjust needs a gauge, old style gauge was spring type, today's tension gauge is digital, wow & flutter is the main issue of the day spend too many time in this matter, finally found cause by the tension arm, spring lost it's sensitivity by the time's aging . no chance to get a NOS part, the only way is without the supply reel side's arm in playback or recording, fast forward or rewind should have both on . this is the final decision for the machine and it came with no case only the mechanic, I made a holder and a cover for it, give it has a kind of new looking, machine sold for 400 Euro shipping charged almost the same, plus heads relap and service cost $700, future mods not count yet worth or not ?
tony ma

Hi Tony,

Very nice casework, the machine looks very nice, these machines tend to be a black hole at times especially Studers. I have found once I have made a commitment to restore these machines the only thing that would force abandonment of the project would be a parts problem.

Just a thought you could look for another B62 as a parts donor or switch the other deck as the primary and this deck as a donor. It looks though you might be past that point. It depends if the B62 has qualities that you really like.

Roger

 

[tony ky ma]

Hi Tony,

Very nice casework, the machine looks very nice, these machines tend to be a black hole at times especially Studers. I have found once I have made a commitment to restore these machines the only thing that would force abandonment of the project would be a parts problem.

Just a thought you could look for another B62 as a parts donor or switch the other deck as the primary and this deck as a donor. It looks though you might be past that point. It depends if the B62 has qualities that you really like.

Roger

Roger
Electronic replace parts will not be problem, just like tube gear, transistor still can be found, don't like IC, but the mechanical part always be problem, head can be relap, other like spring if not NOS, same aging material will result the same, I am in deep thinking of the tension arm , how it will effect to the sound quality, I will try in other type machine to see the different
tony ma

 

[vinbent2]

Hi
I am Vincent and live in the Netherlands
Just bought 2 studer b62 in good condition.
They need some maintenence but it wont be a problem ,mechanicly they are in very good shape but the electronics need some work,won't cost much money about 60 euro's a piece.
Some fine tuning and they should be running again
You now you have to kill a studer before they will stop playing

 

[treitz3]

Hello, vinbent2 and welcome to the WBF from a sunny North Carolina [USA]!

Congratulations on the new to you B62's.

 

[vinbent2]

Thank's teitz3 i am very pleased with the studer's,and hope to get them up and running soon.

 

[andromedaaudio]

What do the experts say ??
I want to get into R2R but i dont want to invest very heavily just for fun and see if i like it , a Studer B 62 is it worth it , or leave it , supposedly working fine .

 

[andromedaaudio]

Got it!!!!
bought a beautifull piece of audiohistory , it played great at guy i bought it from incl manuals , spareparts , 40 or so recordings mostly done with the b 62 it self




DSC_0022 by andromeda61, on Flickr



DSC_0023 by andromeda61, on Flickr

 

[Curt Palme]

I guess it depends on the amount of money he wants to spend, but what about contacting that company in Seattle that rebuilds the Technics 1500s? They make new faceplates for them, and I'm assuming a 1-of for that Revox would be pricey, but I'd guess that they have the machining to do it...

 

[andromedaaudio]

I m gonna have it restored the sound is murky /broken , mechanically it seems not bad , but i suppose the sound/ampcard needs to be repaired /updated among other things dryed out caps and what not
Most of the mechanical things i can do my self anyway i reckon , i do hear a distinct dry bearing once i a while hat needs to be serviced as well.

Actually after a couple of days on the juice and some cleaning ,it operates flawless with hardly any mechanical anoyance , picking up some tapes this week from the dutch broadcasting corp from a basement somewhere , sound is not topnotch yet but i found some reasonably good tapes .
Found also a repair man with large studer expirience for sound revision and mechanical check up

Update , after i removed the brown stain on the heads ( i actually thought it was wear at first) the sound really openend up in dynamics /transparency /loudness , wow very transparent sounding technique and i also like it more than turntable/record technologie with all its hassles


DSC_0025 by andromeda61, on Flickr

 

[andromedaaudio]

I just try to keep all the B 62 info in 1 thread :
Update : the motors of the B 62 are fully revised , the machine will be ready together with the fully revised A 80 RC mk 2 around the half of may .
Got the ultraanalogue tapes waiting , look forward hearing the soundquality of that source

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

I just try to keep all the B 62 info in 1 thread :
Update : the motors of the B 62 are fully revised , the machine will be ready together with the fully revised A 80 RC mk 2 around the half of may .
Got the ultraanalogue tapes waiting , look forward hearing the soundquality of that source

You're gonna love them...I've heard one of the master tapes, and am going again in a few weeks to listen to a new recording.