Hot Rods Price of 8 track players. HOLY COW!!

No way Doug, I always keep the Doobies in the trunk. My mama didn't raise no fool

 

Picked this up at the thrift store the other day for 2 bux. Tag said "untested". Took it up and powered it up and hooked it up to some speakers. Works great! Took cover off and oiled moving parts. Now just need to fab a bracket and install under dash. Pioneer AM/FM made by Lear.

 

No kidding? I have a couple FM converters...they work great!

 

want to sell one of your convertors?

 

I have a brand new Lear in factory sealed plastic. The reason these sound so good is that you are listening to PURE ANALOG SOUND. Even the 8 track cartridges you insert were not only mastered but duplicated on reel to reel analog duplicators. The same goes for cassettes. That's why Michael Jackson's "Thriller" was purposely produced on all analog machines. Quincey Jones could have done it on digital equipment but both he and Michael wanted that good old dynamic kick ass analog sound.
The problems with most used players is that the rubber capstans and belts fall apart. I've seen a website somewhere about refurbishment. One thing you must be careful about is the alignment of the moveable head. The sound of one of these in an old car is just a hoot. You can also sometimes find those reverb units on e-bay.
I would suggest telling as many older friends that you are looking for tapes. Not only are they willing to sell them cheap but some will just give them to you. One guy gave me a huge box full and others still in portable cases. Be sure you know how to open your unit if one gets hung up though.

 

Muntz goodness. Ten Years After!

 

Don't forget the book of matches.

 

for a while, every old car I bought had a 8 track in it, so I have a few Pioneers, a few cheap ones, don't know if they work, I bought a new one 3 years ago that had shelf sat for 20+ years in a hardware store in Pachuta, Mississippi, sent it to Australia when I needed a few bucks(happens a lot lately.)
I remember right before Woolworth's ceased to exist I bought a new Panasonic modern 8 track (30 years?)Modern as it had loads of wattage. Black metal rack component look in a car stereo. One channel let go, still have it I think.
I still got my Bonnie and Delaney and friends bootleg 8 track, I have to go to you tube to hear those songs now...

 

"Edsels and Eight Tracks"... Now there's a match made in Heaven! Do you need a name for your LeMons racing team?

 

It`s amazing how many people make a comment about the 8-trackplayer in my car. They show the younger generation who have never seen one. I buy all the cassette converters I come across, which you don`t see to much.

 

one of the 8 track players my brother got, came with a cassette converter.

 

Had quite a few --gave away a few here on the HAMB--still may be some in the attic

 

A friend of mine had one bolted to the bottom of the dash in his '57 Studebaker Hawk. One night while he was at a dance, someone smart enough to know the dash was fiberglass, ripped it out, taking the center portion of dash with it, he certainly would have been better off with a "slide out" unit.

 

Kraco
Now there is a name I haven't heard in a long time.
So long I can't remember what it was, 8 track, cassette, FM adapter, who knows.

 

I can remember when the theft of under dash tape players got so bad, my insurance wouldn't cover them anymore. They would only cover factory in dash units.

 

I bought a brand new 8 track for my first car that I owned and I enjoyed it except for the fact that you had to let the tracks play through. In other words, if there was a track you didn't like, there was no choice but to wait till your favorite track played. My brother-in-law had a really nice chrome 4 track player in his 29 roadster. My brother had a "48" in his 57 Chevy with reverb. That was so cool to listen to while crusin the blvd.

 

Kraco was a 'budget brand' (usually the lowest price unit) and they made every sort of car audio stuff at one time or another... I know K-mart sold it, as did JC Whitney. Some of it wasn't too bad, some was junk...

Best deck I ever owned was a Panasonic under-dash unit with a FM tuner. It was designed to be connected so that if you switched on the FM, the factory AM radio would shut off. A tape would override either... It would also play 4-track tapes.

The problem with 8-tracks was there were just too many moving parts and varying cartridge quality. The Lear cartridges were best with quality rubber pinch wheels and nylon bushings at all wear points, plus you could open them for lubrication/repair if needed. The cheesy ones were all plastic, and glued together. Theoretically, it was a better format than cassettes because of the faster tape speed but cassettes overwhelmed them in popularity and development pretty much stopped, while cassettes got the benefit of better tape head materials, high output tape, and Dolby noise reduction to where they equaled them in sound quality without the wear/head alignment issues. Recordable CDs came along and killed all tape formats... anybody remember DAT? LOL...

 

Here's a cool site on "tape format" players for cars. Check it out
http://www.carlustblog.com/2011/02/the-end-of-an-era.html

 

Yep, had these, something else ya dont see anymore is the blocky (wedge type ?) speakers that set on the back dash.
Got the 8 track player 8 track tapes and period speakers to maybe go in something some day...???

 

I remember my car got broken in to. Nothing stolen, then a couple nights later it was broken in to again. This time there was a 1/2 dozen 8 tracks on the seat so I figure the thieves took pity on my lame sound equipment...





Ok, that's a joke I heard a comedian tell a few years ago, funnier now for some reason.

 

I have an old A.M. F.M. radio in the Olds wagon, with a built in 8 track player . Now I am just trying to locate some tapes for it. Around here they want $70 for 6 tapes Really?, they sure are proud of their shit down here. LOL. Bruce.

 

Ive got 6 Ill take 60 for,we are not as high up here

 

I don't have any 8 track players anymore but do have my American graffiti tape that I played when I cruised E st in San Berdoo in the 70s.I have some autographs on it and would not play it since I am concerned that the tape would break.

 

Muntz first redesigned the 3-track player into a 4 track to be used in automobiles in 1962.

 

Or rolling papers...

 

I had one in a few cars, last was in my '65 Chevy 1-ton panel. Pink Floyd's DSOTM.

This was a slide mount, otherwise they were stolen left and right. Most flea markets had deals on new ones, came with the speakers, wire and the slide mount. Some guys epoxied razor blades on the back of them as a deterrent.

On one of my many moves, I lost a box with all my 8-track tapes (Frampton, Humble Pie, Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Elvin Bishop, CCR and more), my baseball mitt and more stuff.

 

WELL, that does not apply to vehicles that went mostly unchanged from 64 to 65

 

I have bunches of the eight track tapes. What kind of music you lookin' for? D

 

Your factory units are going to be the pricey ones, the aftermarket under dash ones are still cheap, here's one I've got you could have for $20, untested of course. Not real sure how it hooks up, looks period appropriate though.

 

Wing spread, I remember taking the slack out of an 8 track tape.lol.Bruce.