I have a pioneer FM 8 track underdash mount unit in my 65 country squire,I got another but with cassette and amp for a future project but I am now into putting modern radios in my older cars since I can now burn my own CDs. Jeff
I still have my Akai combination reel to reel with the 8 track in the side that I bought in Okinawa in 1968. My first tape deck that I put into my 58 Plymouth was a 4 track!!! I still have an 8 track storage box filled with 40 year old music. It might be hard to find the head cleaner tape that you are supposed to use periodically for the best sounds.
I put 8 track players in all my cars back in the 70's/early 80's and had one in the house. Still have all my 60's and 70's rock 8 tracks in my shop with a 8 track player. Also have a jukebox full of 45's.
I remember having the portable one as a kid, it ate D batteries like mad. you can put an original 8 track player in the dash and hook up a simple switching system with a couple of four pole double throw 12 volt relays. this way you can play the 8 track like original but you can switch on a hidden audio system which causes the relays to switch over to it.
Reminds me of my 71 Merc Marquis with 429 motor, rockin' down the eastern Colorado plains open highway after midnight. Doing about 90, listening to FREDDIE FENDER, songs as I recall; Before the next teardrop falls, Wasted Days and Wasted Nights, Vaya con Dios, If You Dont Love Me Why Dont You Just Leave Me Alone
My late Uncle gave me his old 8-track equipment. I've got a 'JVC' home 8-track player as well as a 'Realistic' 8-track to cassette adapter. Also, in my '66 Tbird, it has the original, still working 8-track radio option. I tried playing some of the 8-tracks, and when they'd get to the end the tape would snap off the reel? Has the glue gotten old? Can they be re-attached?
They sucked new ! I would think after 30 years on the shelf in a garage they would really suck ! I ain't the smartest guy on earth though !
http://www.8-track-shack.com/mastercraft-80-minute-blank-8-track-tape-sealed-p-8071.html They say they have them....
Shit fire to save matches! I'd like to have some of those. If you play one, then play a remastered CD, the real sound is in the 8track, not mushed and muted by some technician to round off the rough edges. I'll bet you can hear the fingers sliding up and down the bass in Cash's Earlier hits with the original band.
A good place to find 8 tracks is thrift type shops. Goodwill, Salvation army etc. I can usually find 30 or 40 I want put them all in a box and pay like 10 bucks for the box full. You can also pry the case apart and repair them. If the player "eats" them I cut out the small wrinkled section and splice the ends back together with scotch tape.
i have 2 quatron 12 8 track changer machines, they are a blast, from 1972 telex made them,well from maryland ,then they got bought out by telex in minnesota, they play singles mix up the tapes,repeat or random, it pulls them down into the player then when the tape is over it pops up and it rotates to the next tape, not much bigger than a normal turntable, it has fantastic power ,my nephews always got a kick out of it, when an ipod can play 5000 songs and i got about 50 at a time ,they still make 8 tapes some private ladel companies they last ones i saw were recorded in 2005,
I saw new auto 8 track players for sale somewhere not too long ago. Maybe at a flea market. Made in China. There must still be a market for them. The analog recordings (any format) sound so much better than digital. Right now I'm listing to Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-De-Vida on vinyl on a brand new turntable that I bought at Rite Aid drug store (!) for $19.95 last week. I've wired it through my old English made tube type amp. Incredible sound.
wow most people think you crazy when you tell them you had a 4-track player. only had 2 tapes with it: pink floyd and black sabbath. good thing we built a overhead console in my van to house the thing it was a big as a house stereo!
My Mom & Dad gave me an old Caddy with the factory 8 track. I picked up some old tapes at the flea market. There is nothing like cruising an old Cad with ZZ Top or Foghat blasting!
I've got a box with maybe 30 8-track tapes (Zep, Sabbath, etc) and a couple of neat underdash 8-track players. I plan on putting one in my '66 Dodge and the other in my '56 Ply wagon. My wife's '78 New Yorker and my '80 T&C wagon both have perfect-working factory 8-track units in them!
My '56 came with one and I've never owned an 8 track in my life. I don't even know if it works or not. Will get a tape one day at the flea mkt. and see.
I've got a bunch of 8-track tapes that came in the trunk of my wife's 72-T'Bird.It has a factory player in it.I also bought an Automatic Radio 8-track player and installation kit(speakers,wiring,brackets,etc.) NIB at an antique shop of all places.Thing is all chrome(bracket too)and weighs about 15 lbs! Was going to put it my Safari but it interfered with the glove box(it's in the center of the dash)and if I mounted it on the passenger's side,there was no leg room.If anyone is interested in it,make me a reasonable offer. The problem with most cartridges is over time the piece that kept pressure on the tape in the machine(a chunk of foam with a piece of clear tape over it)deteriorated which caused the dragging.I made some up from a closed cell sponge and Scotch tape and glued them in and they worked fine.I also used a needle point oiler that had graphite suspended in alcohol to lubricate the reels.Alcohol dried quickly leaving the graphite on the shafts.
They were kind of cool compared to cassettes because if a song sucked, you could push a button and try one of the three other tracks. I think the sound quality was a hair better than a cassette because the tape went by the head at twice the speed of a cassette (3.5 inches per second instead of 1.75 inches per second if I remember right). Not many people had 8 track recorders though. I remember only one of my friends owned an 8 track recorder. Most people just used pre-recorded tapes. I had a pretty good selection of tapes and I gave them all away to my younger brother about 30 years ago. My $19 Motorolla 8 track worked like a champ. There's not too many moving parts in an 8 track player so it's easy to fix up an old one. If you want to fix one up, there's a drive belt from the motor to the big flywheel for the capstain that might need replacing if it has a glazed over surface on the old belt, you can clean off the surface of the belt and remove the oxidized rubber by scrubbing on it with Q-tips soaked in rubbing alcohol. You can clean the capstain (the shiny steel pin that turns and pulls the tape) with alcohol on a Q-tip. And clean the heads with a Q-tip and rubbing alcohol. The first 8 tracks I bought were Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Led Zep I & 2, and Robin Trower Bridge of Sighs.
Hey , I am a huge fan of the 8-track ! Yes I still have about 200+ 8-tracks and a player for my 55 Ford , a home unit that records and a bunch of the portable ones ! I even have the black imatation looking leather cases with the red insides to put them in for you to carry the 8-tracks to your car and parties . The home case holder is the one that has 4 sides and rotates . Most all of mine are the rock tapes of the bands from the 1970's . I find a ton of the stuff on C list real cheap and sometimes free ! It was like a reel to reel and the tape was wraped around the disk . You can take a reel to reel tape and replace the one on the 8-track if you know how to wind the tape ! If you record over another crap tape , first erace the tape , then record on it . The recording will be a lot better than just recording over the music . You can still find the home big steros in the floor model cabinets that have the recorders in them . I also have about 1000+ LP's and 5-6 turntables ! The needles are getting harder to replace . Sold my R to R this fall . The LP is a lot better than the CD is for sound . CD's are recorded on a dot line but everything else is a wave ! Better sounding plus you can't get everything on a CD ! I have many LP's that are NOT on CD's and many one off rare boot leg recordings from concerts back in the day . Just remember when you go to the car show playing your 8-track to get the match pack out before everyone sees it jambed under the case to get it to play right ! Just 8-track humer there !!!! Keep the 8-track ! It is just one of those things we all had !
I had a big chrome Muntz that played 4 and 8 tracks. I had it in my bedroom powered by an HO slot car transformer with homade box speakers Oh and also a black lite.
A few years ago I found an 8-track labeled "A Tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd" ... for like 75 cents at a thrift shop, I figured maybe it was some cover band, thought it might be interesting - or so bad it would be amusing. So I bought it and figured sooner or later I'd find a cheap player to listen to it on. Well, I did.. a guy down the street put one out on trash day. So I nabbed it. I don't remember the brand, just a household stereo type. Not the first time I nabbed something, I still have an older Harmon Kardon FM-only tuner I picked up when I was like 17 - used to drive around when they had junk day and grab old radios and things. And the tape? A bootleg of actual Skynyrd with some kind of synthesiser sounds added in enough I guess to make it "original" work.
I'm always on the look out for cool old electronics. I have an NOS equilizer from the 70s, one of those 8-track to cassette converters in new condition. Still need an automotice 8 track player though. I did find a quadraphonic 8 track home unit at Goodwill a few months ago, with all four speakers. Had to put new belts in it but it works great, I guess, I have never seen a quadraphonic 8-track tape but it does play normal 8-tracks fine. Any West Texas folks here, you can find a whole load of 8 Tracks at Christians in Action Thift store in San Angleo. Look inside the cabinets they are setting on also. I bought about 10 there for a buck each. Looks like a DJ's old collection.
I got my 8 track unit new on ebay for 1.00 about 120 8 track tapes for about another 45.00 90% are tapes I would have bought my self. I also got the slide in for the FM adapter so I could keep the original AM radio. I plan on a new CD radio that will go under the seat. Not a lot of old cars on the streets here so people are always looking in mine. A 8 track player is an attention getter for sure. I got the 8 track mainly to give my car a little more old school feel. Makes me feel young again lol
I've been able to find a few quad tapes. Certain ones are pretty sought after. I imagine that quad player would bring pretty good money also.
i have a few tapes i have collected, including eddie cochran, a happy days twin tape set, and not one but two stray cats built for speed tapes, some are still sealed in plastic, i have a few players but ive never run any, plan was to get a early muntz stereopak 4/8 player and run it through a speaker level to line level convertor into the amps with a selector switch, I think i have given up, the only ones that are period with my car are 4 track only, i dont think 8 track came out till the lear jet players come out but im not sure, i think that was mid to late sixties. i am thinking of putting in a portable reel to reel player. the early muntz units are getting to dear on ebay and i can only get one sent from usa so if its a dud it costs a fortune to send back and people seem to have different opinions on good working condition with these things.
I am a total 8-track geek.. I have over 70 new in-dash and under dash units.. Have a few 8-track/fm radio units and about 20 or so of the fm units that plug into the player like a tape.. I have also collected about 2500 pre-recorded tapes and have 20 or so new blank ones.. Several home player/recorders too. A few 4-track units with about 20 tapes also.. I just found a real nice muntz 4 & 8 "blue light" at a yard sale.. I am lookng for craig floor mount 8-track/fm units from the 70's..
there is a muntz 4/8 on ebay at the moment, looks good although past my era im aiming for, its $3.99 but the postage to australia is US$169.00 wich is about $300 australian, friggin ups wankers. we didnt get cartridge tapes here till the end of the 60's so the are no cool old muntz or lears, all just 70's ones, usually tape only or tape and AM, compact cassette took over at the end of the seventies but i remember when i was a kid in the 80's and radio stations were still using them or something very simular.
The Jalopy Journal
