For several years I've been working on restoring an Ampex 351 tape deck. I began this project before the fairly recent resurgence of interest in all things connected with magnetic tape machines. This meant that I was able to buy at reasonable prices complete transports and electronics chassis, multiple head assemblies and duplicate motors and spare parts. I was very fortunate that I was able to buy a complete transport in excellent shape from a retired Ampex engineer. Equally important I began to collect service manuals, schematic drawings and service bulletins detailing the history of this design and how changes occurred as the evolution of magnetic tape evolved. I also joined an online Ampex group and began saving relevant posts and taking note of people who were authorities on the subject.
Ampex 351 record and playback electronics have obtained a valued status among some current recording engineers as a "golden era" microphone preamplifier (this view is poo-pooed by the veteran old hands as an example of the dreaded classic "phat-toobe" syndrome). Either way this has been both good news and not so good news. The good news is these electronic units are not consigned to the trash pile but are gathered up in any condition and offered for sale. The less welcome news is that as a result they are expensive to buy even in the most battered condition. I managed to acquire three of them, two in really bad condition and one less so. Another result of this near cult status is there are small companies that support the restoration and modification of them and produce printed circuit boards and replacement output and input transformers. I purchased the set of replacement circuit boards (power supply, recording and playback) as a fall back if I couldn't revive the original boards.
If this thread is of interest I'd be happy to continue detailing this journey.
Ampex 351 record and playback electronics have obtained a valued status among some current recording engineers as a "golden era" microphone preamplifier (this view is poo-pooed by the veteran old hands as an example of the dreaded classic "phat-toobe" syndrome). Either way this has been both good news and not so good news. The good news is these electronic units are not consigned to the trash pile but are gathered up in any condition and offered for sale. The less welcome news is that as a result they are expensive to buy even in the most battered condition. I managed to acquire three of them, two in really bad condition and one less so. Another result of this near cult status is there are small companies that support the restoration and modification of them and produce printed circuit boards and replacement output and input transformers. I purchased the set of replacement circuit boards (power supply, recording and playback) as a fall back if I couldn't revive the original boards.
If this thread is of interest I'd be happy to continue detailing this journey.