Remember reel to reel recorders?

(That's a lot of 'r's in that title!)

I remember my first ever reel to reel recorder.

My uncle, for some reason, had an old one and was going to bin it.

Fascinated by this strange machine, I asked if I could have it and he handed it over to me.

I had an idea what it did, but it needed to be played with to find out what made it tick.

Being a young boy, I didn't have any means to get the actual tape.

Now this bit is going to sound strange but stay with me.

I pinched a large roll of Sellotape and pulled out a huge length of the tape. I did it again and stuck the two bits together.

Grabbing a pair of scissors, I then cut it length ways to get an approximate width of real tape.

Threading it through the recorder, I was so proud of my effort. Yes, we all know it wouldn't actually record, but the point was that I could get those reels to spin and the 'tape' to move.

Looking back, I probably gave the recording heads a damn good clean with that tape!

Have you got a story about those reel to reel recorders?