Avocado Memories: Photos of long-forgotten blank cassettes

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Clark V Kauffman, Mar 23, 2014.

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  1. For years I've tried to find info or at least a picture of the first cassette player / recorder I owned, which was Santa's Christmas present in 1975. Unlike the ones in the pictures, this one didn't have a set of buttons for the transport functions but a center knob, silver with a black center dot, with a handle that allowed you to turn it either clockwise or counterclockwise to access the different functions. Clockwise from far left, they were rewind, stop (12:00 position), play and fast forward. For recording, it had a red button to the left side that had to be kept pushed while turning the main knob to the the "play" position. On the right side, it had a blue button that opened the lid and also ejected the cassette by pressing it to the very bottom. It had a gray speaker cover and, on top left, there were the radio dial and the radio / tape selector. Brand was "Megatone", but I don't think it was a "real" brand. Does anybody know which recorder I'm talking about? I'd love to see it again.
     
  2. Clark V Kauffman

    Clark V Kauffman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Des Moines, Iowa

    Sounds a lot like this one, right down to the placement of the radio dial and the tape selector....


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  3. Clark V Kauffman

    Clark V Kauffman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Des Moines, Iowa
    Check out this bad boy...

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  4. :goodie: :pineapple: :bdance:That's it! Thank you, thank you very much! It's nothing special, but it was my first cassette player and it gave me lots of happiness when I was a kid. I appreciate your help a lot. :righton: :edthumbs: :tiphat:
     
    Last edited: Mar 28, 2015
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  5. Clark V Kauffman

    Clark V Kauffman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Des Moines, Iowa
    This is a very sharp design...
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  6. Clark V Kauffman

    Clark V Kauffman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Des Moines, Iowa
    Cool! I can relate. It was a real mind-trip for me a few years ago when I saw an old Mayfair that was just like my first cassette recorder. I hadn't seen one in 40 years, but as a kid, that thing was the center of my universe.
    As for your Megatone recorder, I have seen pictures of that same model with a couple different nameplates, including "Grand" and "Realtone."
     
  7. Clark V Kauffman

    Clark V Kauffman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Des Moines, Iowa
    One for the kids...

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  8. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    This post is the first time i've ever seen a Pioneer brand tape. They were not available everywhere. If I had seen them, I certainly would have bought one.
     
  9. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    That tape looks very much like the Memorex tape of the mid-80s.
     
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  10. zebop

    zebop Well Known Stranger

    Yep Grant, Certon tried. It doesn't sound like a Maxell though ::laugh:
     
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  11. billygtexas

    billygtexas Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kilgore Texas, USA
    I got a Mayfair cassette recorder for my birthday when I was 10, but not the one a few pages back. I had a deluxe model with volume/tone controls, but I've yet to find a photo of it online. I had a lot of fun with it creating silly news and DJ shows with my brother.
     
  12. billygtexas

    billygtexas Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kilgore Texas, USA
    Now and then I look through the cassettes at thrift stores, but the only ones I pick up now are high bias blank tapes in good shape.
    The TDK SA-90 and the Maxell UDXL-II (later just the XL-II) were the tapes I preferred in my college days.
    [​IMG]
     
  13. GV1967

    GV1967 Senior Member

    Location:
    Northeastern US
    Wow. Talk about memories. How many hours I spent creating compilations on nearly every type of cassette shown in this thread. Now and then, I still come across a few. Cool beanz! :agree:
     
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  14. zebop

    zebop Well Known Stranger

    I found these dumpster diving after a yard sale. The dumpster was about 6 feet tall too, it was worth it, found soe newer cassettes as well as these, you don't see a lot of them often.


    [​IMG]
     
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  15. Clark V Kauffman

    Clark V Kauffman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Des Moines, Iowa
    Looks like those are mostly from the 1972-1975 era.
     
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  16. Chooke

    Chooke Forum Resident

    Location:
    Perth, Australia
    What amazed me about the compact cassette is how far they go from their humble origins as a Dictaphone format. It was Phillips that invented the format and Philips that invented the later CD format which ultimately killed off the compact cassette, ie once CDs became versatile for car and Walkmans and later when they became recordable.

    The quality of recordings you could make in the mid 80s from quality decks using metal tapes was surprisingly good. Putting reel to reel aside, I was only able to surpass them with analogue tape using a Hi Fi VCR, when they could record using the entire width of the video tape.
     
  17. Phil Tate

    Phil Tate Miss you Indy x

    Location:
    South Shields
    This is a brilliant thread, brought back memories of unheard-of brand tapes from supermarkets - I particularly remember Sim (staggeringly awful - I'd record something on my dad's Pioneer cassette deck with the meters into the red, then when I played it back the meters would barely move), Justine (three different colour cassettes with no cases in a polythene pack) and TWD (clearly designed to look like TDK at a casual glance).

    It's heartbreaking that tape is a whole technology that's practically been and gone.
     
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  18. Clark V Kauffman

    Clark V Kauffman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Des Moines, Iowa
    Some interesting tapes from the past, including some attempts at cross-marketing with cigarette manufacturers!

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  19. Clark V Kauffman

    Clark V Kauffman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Des Moines, Iowa
    Apparently, this is a thing now: Lamps constructed of old cassettes... Pretty cool, actually.

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  20. Clark V Kauffman

    Clark V Kauffman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Des Moines, Iowa
  21. JP Christian

    JP Christian Forum Resident

    I've noticed that older chrome and metal tapes, even used ones are starting to go for pretty serious money on ebay...

    I've got quite a collection of sealed blanks, some going back to the late 70's - perhaps I could make a pretty penny from some of them!
     
  22. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    Geez, @zebop --
    There's one particular Scotch variety in your photo:
    Screen shot 2015-08-04 at 2.34.46 AM.png
    ....that I recall using to record a multi-hour Elton John special in, I'm guessing, about 1974, probably from KOL radio in Seattle. I may still have that floating around somewhere, utterly buried in a box out in the garage.....
     
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  23. Same here. I had quite a few BBC live concerts on those Sony's. Decent quality and cheap if bought in bulk.
     
  24. zebop

    zebop Well Known Stranger

    Ha, that's very cool, MLuttans, I thought it was from this time frame. The person I got got them from kept them in good condition and recorded either classical or gospel on the cassettes. I was happy to find those, I'm a big fan of cassette variations and always liked the era of Scotch tape.
     
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  25. belushipower

    belushipower Forum Resident

    I buy tapes off eBay all the time to use on my Tascam 244 fourtrack. New album (LP/CD/DL) out November! Taped over old compilation tapes and new stock off eBay. Cassette tape ~ sounds great!
     
    JP Christian likes this.
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