MCI JH 110 1/4" 2-track

[andy_p]

Charles, I am going to have to get a 1/4 track head on one of the mci's, so much fun ahead! 

[andy_p]

I ended up getting Terry to rebuild the nagra pinch roller ($40 including shipping ended up being an incredible deal, super nice work).  I had talked to someone in service at trew audio and the nagra part was $200 (you have to buy the entire pinch roller assembly).  I just intalled it and connected a microphone and recorded my first album, I will be calling it "testing 1,2,3,4, with variations".  Have been working on one of the mci machines, I have the 1/4" mono headblock so will probably set up one of the mci's for mono. 

[ironbut]

Sounds like you're having a lot of fun Andy.
Sometimes when I think back to when I wasn't involved with magnetic tape and other more hands on audio stuff, I wonder what was keeping my interest up.

On that note, I've wondered just how much it would cost to have a pair of large reel adapters machined? Considering the prices that those things are demanding,(and ones for the Stellavox too) it might be something that could be cloned using CNC technology. Of course you'd need an original.
You might search around and see if there's a Nagra users group (maybe a yahoo group?).

[andy_p]

Hi Steve, it crossed my mind after looking at the stellavox adapter.  I looked at the nagra just now to see what sort of tension system there was, I noticed that the feed reel tension is constant for playback and record (from what I can tell there seems to be constant resistance on the spindle either at rest or play).  There is back spin tension on the take up reel on rewind (the feed reel tension feels like it is a brake?).  Without thinking about it much it seems like it might be possible to do something similar to the stellavox units.  I like this nagra iv-l because the overall cost is not very high (for mono) considering the overall quality of the unit so it is a fun project to play around with.  I am excited to do some recording, the person that sold me the jh-110a has a small studio and is also a musician so I might take it over there and have him help me make an acoustic guitar recording to see what the potential is for audio quality.