Quad reel v. quad 8 track

[Garrard201]

I have a Panasonic quad 8 track, and an Otari MX-5050II 4-track/4-channel open reel. I had everything all setup to copy me precious Beatles quad 8 tapes... but the sound is just awful. It's the usual, wow-and-flutter, misaligned head deal, and I even thoroughly cleaned the 8-track. The problem, I think, would be cured by aligning the head by hand, but getting to it is just impossible.

I also have a Fostex 8-track, 1/4" reel deck. How feasible is it to crack open my cartridges and spool the tape onto them? I know 8-track tapes have different backing lubricant which could derail this whole project. How about my tapes- would ruining the cartridges be a serious mistake?

By the way, I know it's the alignment, because I have new stereo 8-tracks I played, and they had the same symptoms. : (

Would a matchbook work even for quad? I'll try it now.

[Garrard201]

No dice on the matchbook.

[mhardy6647]

Most 8-tracks had a tracking control right on the front, due to just this problem.

The flutter's pretty inherent to the format, though.

Ruining the cartridge would not be a great idea.

I don't know the track format for 8-track, it might might be here, though:
http://richardhess.com/notes/formats/magnetic-media/magnetic-tapes/analog-audio/025-reel-tape/

[louisiii]

The 8 track cartridge was basically an automotive player. They did make book self models and I have one with a cassette insert. The people that like them are the people who bought tons of them in the sixties. You can find box loads of them at garage sales and the whole box will go for a dollar. I would rather have an under the dash 45 rpm record changer or a 33 1/3 under the dash turntable, with a Motorola dial telephone on the dash. Now if you had a 57 T-Bird or a Vet and a date you to had to eat at a restaurant that night. The was no room in the trunk for a picnic basket, because the radio transceiver for the phone took up the whole trunk. You also had to rent a motel room because the record player took up all the space under the dash on the passenger side of the car. 8 tracks are to be looked at in museums; get something your can enjoy listening to. Reel to reel belong in Arizona for the health of the tapes unless you have a wire reel to reel recorder. If you have a lot of cartridges wait for a dry cool day and transcribe them to CD.
Good Luck

[titanstats]

Louisiii, you'll find plenty of people here who'll disagree with you on this subject -- AK is a haven for all vintage equipment/formats, even 8-track nuts. :) Garrard, are there any other AK members near you with a viable machine that you could borrow? You could use my quad machine, but I'm kinda far from Chicago! I myself don't use 8-tracks -- the machine was just an oddity that I couldn't resist buying.

[tcdriver]

The problem, I think, would be cured by aligning the head by hand, but getting to it is just impossible.. I do not have a lot of experience with 8-tracks, I have only owned about four or five of them. On most, if not all, the models I owned, there was an adjustment for head alignment. To get at the adjustment one must remove the cover / case. If your 8-track player does not have adjustment capability, your best bet may be to find a different / better 8-track machine. Good luck.

[Elfasto]

I'll throw my hat in here:

You can spool the 8-track tape to a open reel deck, but you will need a 8 track open reel machine (looking at the proshops for this one) to select the proper tracks for left and right channel. Now, the tape has a graphite coating on the back so the tape can slide out of the center of the reel inside the cartridge, so you'll be doing alot of cleaning afterwards. BUT, it will work.