With my brother and his kids in town we did some thrift store shopping to pass the time and explore the Tower District

At the Neighborhood Thrift I came across an old Panasonic Tape Recorder that was in decent shape for $10. It came with the power cord and dictation microphone, so I purchased it and we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon with Mexican food and general silliness.

I had a chance to try it out and the tape was playing double speed, but otherwise worked fine.

Looking at the mechanism the pinch roller wasn’t contacting the capstan.

It was a quick fix to retension the spring and get the play speed back to normal.

Now that the tape recorder is working, I had a chance to hear some old recordings including audition tapes as well as recordings from Orchestra trips to Europe.

Audra and I also had a chance to test the dictation microphone with a Father/Daughter duet singing ROSÉ and Bruno Mars’ APT.

Always fun to give old stuff new life and share the experience of playing with audio.