[Myles B. Astor]

Originally Posted by MyPal

Myles...Thanks for a heads up with your customization. I've already started dialogue with Jeff who says I can apparently have anything I want. He has a 1520 for me to do a ground up rebuild & customization. It seems he outsources some of the work depending on the brief. I would be wanting both PB & record plus the additional head mounted on his custom headblock for direct external repro as an option should I go for this down the track. Recording will be equally important for my application too. Will ask about what sort of heads he is using on his rec/PB performance option. Would like to use a Furutech IEC with EMI filter plus Furutech XLR/RCA plugs. As for the finish, naturally a "blue meter look & feel" & hope he can accommodate the material fabrications.

I'm actually quite excited to have come across Jeff who has been doing some awesome work by giving the Technics a 2nd life.

I did find another 1520 in Germany & also asked the German about the possibility of sourcing a Studer A810. Relatively easy to get a A810 in Europe but hard to find a good one that hasn't had a hard life...

The pro machines require a bit more dedication--not to mention space--to operate and maintain. Forget the heads--they you can replace them with some extended response heads from John French--but you have to have the expertise or someone around who can align and maintain head azimuth. That's not to mention all the other functions that need maintenance. One of the better people for fixing/answering Studer questions (and other decks like Nagra, Ampex) is Ki Choi (who has a R2R museum in his home too ). Ki hangs out at thetapeproject.com or whatsbestforum.com.

And many think that by modding a Technics deck (it does have an excellent transport eg. the same hefty motors used in their top turntables), changing the heads, etc. that there's little difference between the pro machines and pro-sumer machines for PB purposes (for instance, Opus 3 uses a modded Technics for making their new tapes).