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"John's photographs clearly show the tape transport mechanisms, reeler/de-reeler devices, recording decks, and their tape mastering machine. In the manual for the duplicating line, you can clearly see the wide hubbed reels for the master tapes, and the master tape loop bins with 8 channel output meters. I am still attempting to acquire photographs of a Sidewinder.

"He also sent some professionally scanned copies of the operator's manual for the Ampex duplicating line. It shows some really great views of the master and slave decks, as well as the instructions for its usage.

"He has told me that the equipment is still used once a month or so, but that most tape duplications are now done on newer equipment for better quality output and faster production."

I also heard from Jim Dunne who used to work at Livingston Audio Products (LAP), the makers of the LAP Sidewinder as an expediter. LAP was located in Fairfield, New Jersey, about 20 miles west of Manhattan.

At the time they were doing contract work for Ampex, Columbia, Atlantic Records, and several smaller labels in New York and New Jersey. As an expediter, he was the person who caught hell from the customers when the products weren't delivered, from the production people when they felt the production schedules were unrealistic, and from everyone else in between. He said that his counterpart at Ampex in Elk Grove Village "lost it" one day when he did a random quality control check of a shipment of several thousand Cream tapes and heard Aretha Franklin shouting "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" from his monitor speakers.

He said that LAP was a healthy company of about 90 employees in 1969 to 1970. By 1971 however they had shrunken to only around 15 or 20 people and were into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It was kept going for a while longer by some dedicated employees. Even though rescued from Chapter 11, it finally disappeared in an equipment and asset auction.

He mentioned the company owners Tom Hofbauer and Darrell Sholten. These were the folks who basically invented and developed the Sidewinder that was used at Ampex.

Just prior to the company's liquidation sale, Jim and Darrell were walking around looking things over and they came across a pile of two-track quarter-inch master tapes from the Prestige label.

Prestige Records, now part of Fantasy Records, was founded by Bob Weinstock in the 1950's. Its catalogue included some of the giants of the jazz era including the early recordings of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and many others.

They looked at the pallet for a moment and Darrell said to him "Jim, why don't you take those tapes before it (the pallet) gets tagged?". Jim regrets to this day that he did not have room to store them, and so he declined. Sadly his current interest in Jazz was just beginning to blossom at that time.

Jim in turn placed me in touch with Brian Gallagher, one of the last few employees at LAP. Brian is credited with being the person most responsible for saving LAP from the Chapter 11 bankruptcy circa 1971 until its final demise. He kept the equipment running and probably knew as much or more about the Sidewinders than anyone else.

His recollection was that LAP was founded by Chet Smiley. They had apparently manufactured and marketed a portable phonograph device. LAP produced 4-track cartridges for the broadcast industry early on. DJs would have stacks of these cartridges containing commercials or radio spots. They would be selected manually or in some cases by means of automation. Nowadays recordable CDs are more likely used for this purpose.

LAP also produced larger format endless loop cartridges for the background music industry. These were about a foot square and even though they were 4 track recordings, they played back in monophonic mode. This allowed approximately 4 to 6 hours of music to be recorded and played back automatically.