TP-027, Jerry Garcia / David Grisman wins a Writer's Choice Award from Myles Astor of Positive Feedback Online

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Topics - docb

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1
Service Resources / NAGRA - well how about that!
« on: June 21, 2018, 04:03:29 PM »
Last winter I was approached by Rene Laflamme, sales and marketing manager for Nagra in the US and Canada, about offering service for Nagra high end audio products to US and Canadian customers. After some serious consideration I am proud to announce that we have agreed to take referrals and have begun both service and also restoration work on several decks. We can also help with service on Nagra amps, preamps, etc. From what I can gather some other shops that were known for Nagra service in the past no longer take on work on the tape related gear as their experts retire or otherwise move on. At least that is what our customers have been telling me.

Nagra have been most helpful in providing us with service data and are offering access to what parts they have available for repair. I want to be clear that we're not a free consulting service, and we do not share Nagra intellectual property. Regarding parts for sale, at this time we will stick with providing parts only for repairs that come to us. If, in the future, parts become more readily available we may be able to make some available for sale with Nagra's permission.

If you are anywhere in the world besides the US and Canada please contact Nagra Switzerland for direction to a service resource.

www.nagraaudio.com

Our rate is $125 per hour plus parts. Bench fee is also $125, and includes a diagnosis and baseline measurements for tape machines. Rates are subject to change. You can email me at [email protected] for more info.

2
Tape Project Machines / Tape path kits - end of production
« on: January 30, 2018, 05:53:13 PM »
Thought I would mention here that we are taking orders for the final run of Technics and Otari tape path upgrade kits. It's such a niche product and so different in terms of parts inventory from our electronics kits that it does not work to keep it in the Bottlehead product line. So we are taking orders for the final run through February 18th.

3
General Discussion / Retiring!
« on: December 21, 2016, 05:39:04 PM »
Eileen and I will be retiring from the Tape Project in the new year. It's been an absolute gas pursuing this crazy ass idea with my brothers Paul and Romo. Before anyone starts ridiculous speculations I'll say right here that all is very well amongst the three of us, TP is in great shape with lots of albums in stock and a couple of very interesting new projects coming out very soon (one to be introduced at CES), and we wish the guys the very best as TP rolls forward.

Our decision came about from a couple of things -

One is that I felt my main job at Bottlehead was suffering a bit from my divided attention. I've had a few interesting product ideas that I have been wanting to pursue for several years now. The time never seemed to be there to get them done, and I really want to get some of them out next year. We'll be putting out our first speaker kit in 15 years in early 2017 and I am working on some studio oriented kit products as well. We have also experienced a rather startling discovery of Bottlehead by lots and lots of local audiophiles in the past 6 months (after 25 years in the business we became an overnight sensation) and we have been enjoying dedicating time to that local audience with regular audiophile meetings at Bottleheadquarters and frequent, pleasant client visits for auditions and tech support. We've also had great success with our yearly concerts with Jacqui Naylor and Art Khu and I have decided to try that type of intimate concert here with local artists on a regular basis in the new year. So there will be plenty to keep us busy in the future.

The other thing that has happened is Eileen and I actually took a real honest to god adventurous vacation last summer in the form of a trip to Bonneville land speed trials and some camping in some of Oregon's most remote areas. We realized we want to do a lot more of that and it means adjusting our life style from working every week of the year to a stop and smell the roses once in a while approach. And so I need to lighten the load a bit to be able to pursue a little more travel and some other passions.

Obviously I remain a staunch supporter of TP and the entire master quality reel to reel album industry that Paul, Romo and I created eleven years ago. And I will keep my hand in the equipment end of the business. There will be no shortage of tape decks in our listening room system. Thanks so much to everyone who has supported TP over the years. I know many of you have heard my stories of the incredulous looks we would get from people when we first proposed the idea back in 2006. I truly appreciate those of you who got past "you're crazy as f***" and gave us a chance to help people experience just how incredibly good music reproduction can be.

4
Events / Tape discussion at Axpona 2016, Friday April 15th, 3:15-4:15
« on: April 06, 2016, 03:08:42 PM »
Tape: The Format Of The Future (with a short history of its Glorious Past)

Chad Kassem, Acoustic Sounds
Paul Stubblebine, The Tape Project
Chris Mara, Welcome to 1979
Dan Labrie, ATR Service and ATR Magnetics
Myles Astor, Journalist


Meet pros who are directly involved in the Tape Renaissance

Find out how easy it can be to have a studio quality tape machine playing back Master Tape Copies in your listening room.

How to get the most out of the format, making sure your tape machine is operating at its best.

5
Events / It's been TEN years!
« on: January 29, 2016, 10:50:41 PM »
The Tape Project is ten years old! That's right, it has been ten years since we introduced the concept of studio quality tape to the audiophile community. Thanks to everyone who has supported over the years.

http://tapeproject.com/catalog/

6
General Discussion / Couple of fun links - old tape magazines
« on: December 21, 2015, 09:49:52 PM »
This may have been posted before, but I just stumbled upon some great archives of US and UK tape recording magazines from the 50s thru 70s with nice high quality scans:

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Tape-Recording-Magazine.htm

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Tape-Recording-UK.htm

8
Events / Jacqui Naylor and Art Khu live recording at Bottleheadquarters
« on: November 09, 2015, 02:27:06 PM »
We have some very exciting news! Jacqui Naylor and Art Khu will be back in December for another concert at Bottleheadquarters on beautiful Bainbridge Island. The dates are December 4th and 5th with a 7:30 start time. Please arrive a bit early for some nosh and beverages, as we will need to seat everyone before the recording session begins. Each of the very intimate shows Jacqui and Art have put on in past years at BHQ has sold out. In 2015 we made a last minute decision to experiment with a live recording to tape of the performance with very promising results. This year we will be doing a live mix "on the fly" via a vintage Altec all tube console to our world famous Bottlehead modified Nagra T Audio tape recorder. So if you want to experience a live jazz recording session with the flavor of those fabulous mixed on the fly jazz club recordings of the 50s and 60s, and meet two amazing artists in a very up close and personal (just two dozen seats) venue, don't miss this show!

Tickets for Friday, December 4th show

Tickets for Saturday, December 5th show

9
Tape Project Albums - general / Two albums back in stock
« on: November 04, 2015, 04:01:32 PM »
As of today we have restocked a few copies each of

TP-008 Bill Evans' Waltz for Debby
http://tapeproject.com/product/bill-evans-waltz-for-debby/

and TP-014 Reference Recordings' Respighi, Church Windows and Copland, Appalachian Spring
http://tapeproject.com/product/keith-clark-pacific-symphony-orchestra-respighi-church-windows-copland-appalachian-spring-the-concert-version/

10
Work Song / Available online soon
« on: October 20, 2015, 03:42:03 PM »
We will have copies of this album in stock online just as soon as we complete shipments to all of our series three subscribers. That should happen in the next week or two. If anyone is counting, yes, we have indeed released four new albums in the past 12 months.

11
We now have a nice feature that will send you a one time email alert when an out of stock album that you are interested in comes back into stock. When a title is out of stock a field will appear at the bottom of its web page, where you can type in your email address. Click the box next to it that says Join Waitlist. You will be notified when the album is back in stock and given a link you can use to order it. We don't save the email address or give it to anyone else, and your email address will be removed from the waitlist once your notification is sent.

12
Events / Upcoming recording session
« on: August 19, 2015, 10:44:43 AM »
Last weekend I had the good fortune to hang with my dear friends Jacqui Naylor and Art Khu. During a really fun hang we tentatively planned a live recording session at Bottleheadquarters in early October. That date has now been firmed up to December 4th and 5th

This will be the third time that Jacqui and Art have performed at BHQ. Last year we decided at the last minute to record the gig. The show was fabulous, and though the resulting recording was not up to my technical standard in terms of a commercial release it gave me confidence to try again with a better setup. The shows are really fun and very intimate with an audience of just a couple dozen.

I am planning to pull out all the stops this year with a newly acquired Altec 250SU all tube mixing console and if time permits I will finish my Studer A80 and we will record to 1" two track tape, mixed "on the fly".

I will update this as the plan comes together.

13
Events / Tape Project at the California Audio Show
« on: August 04, 2015, 04:29:27 PM »
This is a little bump done to get this show on our events calendar -

We will be rolling tape in the Burwell and Sons Speakers room (Third Floor, the San Francisco Suite) at the California Audio Show August 14,15 and 16th. On Saturday at 5:30 we will have a special event featuring a talk with Jacqui Naylor about the making of her Tape Project album The Number White. We'll play a couple of tracks from that album and also play our latest release Jerry Garcia / David Grisman in its entirety.

14
Jerry Garcia / David Grisman / Surprise!
« on: July 31, 2015, 05:04:42 PM »
We are delighted to announce a surprise release! Just a few weeks ago we managed to secure the license to Jerry Garcia / David Grisman from David's label, Acoustic Disc. It's the first of a wonderful series of collaboration albums by these two great artists. We decided this was such a special album it needed to be released as soon as we could duplicate enough albums for our loyal and incredibly patient original subscribers. And we managed to produce a few more albums for sale online. All the while we did our best to keep our everlovin' mouths shut about this. Well today is the day we can crow about it! As I am typing this the subscriber albums are being picked up by the shippers and the online order page is being activated. Enjoy some delightful pickin'!

http://tapeproject.com/product/jerry-garcia-and-david-grisman/


15
Tape Project Machines / A visit to Flux Magnetics
« on: July 28, 2015, 06:42:45 PM »
Had the great pleasure to spend a little of last week's vacation at Flux Magnetics. Proprietor Greg Orton most graciously allowed me to take a few photos to share of his amazing tape head manufacturing lab while he described the painstaking and incredibly precise process of making the world's best tape heads...

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