Wenlock [wenlock@hotkey.net.au]
Saturday, 4/29/01
When I was very young, growing up in London (UK), I used to look in the windows of a Ferris dealer just around the corner from my dad's auto shop. Those 8-track machines looked grand... Roll on 18, license, car and 8 track.. Well, I lost interest in driving by the time I was 18, and by then I'd moved to Melbourne, Australia, and 8 track seemed to fade away from about '75. Seemed like it never was greatly popular here, anyway I didn't see much other than 2nd hand after that. To my suprise, I was holidaying in Sydney and found that not only were 8-tracks still popular (you couldn't buy new albums on 8 track in Melbourne by then) but there was actually a toy that used the 4 programs to tell jokes and stories.. It was a robot from outer space, and the four buttons on the front allowed you to answer questions, or make a choice. Of course it was simply clever arrangement of the material on the four programmes. Can't remember the name of it, but I'd be interested in finding one.....
Don't think any were sold in Melbourne, never saw an ad anywhere for it outside of Sydney... I remember a friend in 1977 asking me to wire up an 8track in his car, guess the roller on his one and only cart was worn. You had to hold it in to keep the music coming, I couldn't get the little retainer to press any harder on the notch... I think he used to jam a piece of wood between the bench seat and the cart... Sheesh... I recall seeing a boxful of carts at the sunday market in the early 80s, cheap too. And a brand new machine in sealed box in 1997! Amazing sight that was!! Wonder if it was old stock? And a friend of my dad's showed me an 8-track in his car that could record... Now that was something, made my little Philips cassette recorder sound like a prewar wire recorder......
Wenlock
Bacchus Marsh, Australia.
From: KBsrailroad@aol.com
Date: Wed 3/21/2001 12:45 AM
Subject: 8 tracks
I love your website. After reading the hate mail it occurred to me that they simply have no grasp. It's not about better sound and technology. It's about the spirit of the past, which they could all learn from. I remember kicking back, listening to 8 tracks or AM radio, (all I could get in my hometown), and I enjoyed it just as much as the CDs I pop in today. It's a better, vanished time in our lives. Anything you have a passion for is worth remembering....and sharing.
From: Scrmngina@aol.com
Date: Fri 3/23/2001 3:31 PM
Subject: 8-tracks?
WOW thats all i can say, i see some at used record stores etc,, as far as the players yeah sometimes at thohe stores to,, but is there that much of a market for these bands to do this,, i mean most kids today would have no idea what an 8 track is,,,anyways cool site....
Ray West [motorleague@alaska.com]
Subject: Blank 8-tracks
Date: Sat 2/3/2001 2:10 PM
Gregory J. Collins [collinsg@loki.stockton.edu]
Date: Fri 2/2/2001
Subject: Lucifer: Black Mass
I had this on vinyl back in 1972-73. I was very interested in electronic music (and still am - I have a great synth studio with a few great vintage analog pieces!) and bought everything I could. Like a dimwit, I let "Black Mass Lucifer" - I didn't quite know how to say it either - go around 1977-78. I have been looking for it for a couple of years now. Thanks to your site for a bit of great info!
Greg Collins
Mays Landing, NJ
Thu 1/25/2001
From: Nikos Chremos [nchremos@lfsrefugee-immigration.org]
Subjectd: Bootleg Cart Gallery
Wow!, I haven't been to the site for awhile, I've been focusing on my records and work and our band "All NIght" (a pretty bad 70's southern rock meets hendrix mess--can't wait to get some good recordings and make an 8 track). I've been collecting great boot labels too for awhile. Enough even to wallpaper my guitar case with duplicates! Thanks for the gallery. I love it. Keep up the good work. Maybe we'll play up there in the mountains soon!
Nikos in Gso
John Harrill [J_Harrill@msn.com]
To:
Subject: Digital down the drain!
Date: Jan 15, 2001
I had to give my son a rant this weekend about CD jewel cases. The person
who designed them should be hung in the town square and we could throw rotten
apples or eggs at that person. Of all the formats, CD jewel cases are terrible.
They last only a few weeks from when you buy them at the store. Some are cracked
when you buy them. The booklets in the seedys get mashed when you close the box
if everything is not perfect. They must have spent ten minutes designing that
stupid thing and probably drunk also. They must have been designed by the devil
himself.
Also something else. The song, "Walk Right In" was recorded by Maynard
Solomon in 1963, analogue of course and also mono. Nearly 31 years later, the
same musician Eric Darling, recorded it digitally and stereo with the same 12
string guitar and the same arrangement. Guess which one sounds better by far?
The analogue one, if course. There is no "soul" in the digital
recording illustrated by Abigail her fine writing. So there, Russ, an excellent
example for you. An excellent engineer explained it this way. Digital recordings
are like typing a paper. If a different person types the same keys you did, you
get a perfect copy. An analogue recording is like a picture painted by an
artist. Every one is a little different. You can talk frequency response and
noise levels all you want. but the real test is the ears. After all, we hear in
analogue and all sounds are analogue. The movement of air creates the sound.
So...Long live analogue and our enjoyment of music. One channel mono or six
channels of digital. If the soul's not there, you've just got loud noise. Check
out the Cinerama site. They talk about six channel analogue being better than
six channel digital. And the six channel analogue was done in 1964. All we have
to do is get the word out and educate the public before they have no choice.
Sorry for being so wordy. I just had this on my mind and Abigail made the
thoughts come into focus, at least the most focus I can manage at my advanced
age.
Thanks,
John
Nicole Duhaney [nikki53@hotmail.com]
To: malco@8trackheaven
Subject: Thanks 4 a great site!
Wed 1/3/2001
From: Joe Nechanicky HonestMan@NOSPAMll.net
Glad to see people supporting the 8 track format. Sometimes to make things work right when using the 8 track system, it takes a little patience, a few home made parts few adjustments. The rewards are big when it comes to self satisfaction of knowing you can make it all work. A properly adjusted deck and quality tapes will give excellent sound. If you are a user of the 8 Track format, be proud of the fact. So many uninformed people down talk the tapes and equipment, and others call them selves " Eight Track Nuts" to describe their interest in the format. We are not nuts, we are collectors. I admire anyone who has specialized interests in preserving older technology. There are people who collect and restore old Radios, Organs, Musical instruments, Slot Cars, Model Railroad things, Jukeboxes and endless other items that have a personal interest to them. I am glad to see the interest in 8 track tapes and the preservation of the format. This coming forward and being open of the fact is long over due. We all need to be proud we are here doing what we are doing. I for one appreciate the Eight Track Heaven Web site, it has provided me and countless others with resources and the inspiration to redevelop interests in the format. Informational, helpful, excellent links, many provided by other users of the site. This website is a real asset to those of us relying on a central source of support for the format. The Eight Track format needs to be preserved, it was the original mobile auto sound format. Any one who was the first on their block to install an 8 track system in their car knows what a change that was from relying on the AM radio. Thanks again Malcolm, and all the others who help create the site, and maintain it. I visit the site often.I am happy to see its user numbers growing each and every day. Audio formats will continue to change, thats for certain, but just because the retailers pull old technology off the shelf because there is more money to be made with something new, is no reason we need to stop using the old.
From: NLeocata0089@aol.com
Subject: What is wrong with some people?
8-Tracks are the best sorce of music and all the people that wrote hate mail
are all F***ing ass holes who should stick there little CD Players and Cassettes up their ass! That is if they have one! Richard, Lancashire.
Date: Mon 12/11/2000
From: Jo and Rex [jorex@swbell.net]
Thanks for a great site! I still have my Wollensak 8 Track recorder with Dolby. I used to synchronize it to the Dolby standard level tone transmitted by a local FM station every Sunday night. In addition, the unit was equalized for 3M Classic Professional reference standard reel-to-reel tape which 3M packaged in blank 8 tracks and sold for awhile under the 3M name and Radio Shack's. With Dolby properly calibrated, the unit could produce 30Hz to over 15 kHz which surpassed a top-of-the-line Teac consumer reel-to-reel of the day! It was one bad mofo!! Used to really freak my friends out when I would plug a homemade Pink Floyd cartridge into the Pioneer 8 track in my old 66 Impala SS. It would flat rattle the doors and sounded clear and clean.
You guys remember reaching through the door of the player in your car to frequently adjust the tracking for commercial tapes? Seems like they could just never get the tracks aligned correctly at the factory. How about rapping them on the console when they got wound a little too tight? Or putting new track change strips on them when they quit swapping tracks at the right time. How about that big fat cardboard 8 track case with the vinyl covering that everybody brought to a party? Or losing your favorite cartridge and then finding it later wedged under the back seat with a french fry jammed in the front? And even the fact that we always called them "cartridges" and never "cassettes." Damn, you've got me going now! Where is that cartridge of the Moody Blues' "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour"? Daddy gonna party tonight!!
Jorex on the Internet
Never miss a good opportunity to shut up
From: William and Marilee Ramsell [alev@gte.net]
Subject: The Choice
Date: Thu 12/7/2000
Great Site! When I was 13 my dad and I drove around the U.S. in a camper, our only companion a lousy a.m. radio with an 8-track player. We played our tapes until they sounded like the music was a mile away being played at the bottom of a fairly deep well (you remember the phenomenon, I'm sure). He had big band music, Benny Goodman, Liltin' Martha Tilton, etc., and I had K.C. and the Sunshine Band (I have better taste now), but every time I see an 8-track it brings up great memories of that summer with my dad. Keep preserving these rectangular pieces of history. Our grandchildren may be curious. And if your Christmas tree is not level, stick an 8-track under one of the legs. It works like magic!
Coyote Bill
Tom Hoehler [tomh@aye.net]
12/6/2000
Subject: Aaaaah! 8-track
I read the hate mail letters and was amazed at the level of ire this poor little format generates!! I was a stereo sevice technician back in the late 60's and early 70's, and I bought and paid for my first new car with money I made repairing 8 track home and car decks! Had a hell of a lucrative business going repairing the tapes themselves. The format is a wonder to behold, I bought a Ross 8 track recorder, used to record right on thru the track changes!! Just got a little click in the speakers and off you'd go for another 17 minutes or so! I will admit, the recorded tapes from the big companies like Capitol and RCA were pretty shoddy quality, but if you bought your own recordable carts from Basf or Ampex, you could cut youself some damn good sounding tapes that lasted a long time. Alas, the cassette siren wooed me away from 8 track many years ago. I sold all the equipment and all of the tapes I had made. The guy at the yard sale that bought the whole shootin' match kept saying, "Ya got any more of 'em?" You have a great web site, I am so glad someone took the time to keep these memories alive. Keep up the good work.
Fri 11/24/2000
Subject: 8-tracks Rock!
John Orton [jorton@tpg.com.au]
Date: Tue, 11/22/00
Subject: GREAT JOB!
Tue 11/21/2000
Subject: 8 track was bad, but..
When I think of 8 track tapes, I remember my high school years with a smile.
However, I also remember those damn things turning to crap if exposed to a
little heat. Oh yes, all those countless hours removing the chewed tape from my
car player. How about that sound! Yech. Happily, it's a part of history that I
still hold with found memories.
Tony Parsons
tonyjag19@aol.com
Tue 11/21/2000
Patricia Zarate [patriciaz@hotmail.com]
Subject: 8-tracks and Me
i own a car that's older than i am, and it has its original stereo in it that STILL WORKS...including the 8 track player. so, either i go out and buy a new stereo, a new car, or i opt for buying 8 tracks. what gets me though is that if not for my car, i would never have encountered the novelty of 8 tracks...switching programs looking for the song i want to listen to...making my friends jealous because they don't have working 8 track players and cool 8 tracks...so, i say, long live the 8 track, and my car. (by the way, it's a 1978 ford thunderbird, and its name is beluga) happy 21st birthday to me
patricia
by the way, great site
11/21/00
[SIXTEENMMKID@aol.com]
Subject: Hi
I found this site by accident. I still have quite a few 4 and 8 track tapes i still play i have an exotic JVC 8 track i rebuilt and use it's playing right now Slim Whitman. LOL. I have the So Wrong There Right Video. It was givin to me 2 or 3 years ago i think. Still have a couple misc old 8 track machines somewhere around. It's amazing some of these old tapes play as well as they do as they have been thrown around so much by various people. Cue foil and Pressure pads is about all they ever need. For Pressure Pads i use some that MuZak uses to repair there cartridges except i super glue them to the original holders if possible. Works for me. Later Doug
Eric Koester [koesterdoc@email.msn.com]
9/17/2000
Subject: Thank you
if CDs came out at the time of 8-track and 8-tracks where the main stream format now, we would all be CD trackers. i just thought that it would be kind of neat to have access to new stuff, but even i have to confess that i own more vinyl than 8-tracks. no CD player yet, mabey mini disc some day. but i fo not think that DVD will catch on to soon. well thanks for your reply, and i love your site i thought that i was the only one who listened to 8-tracks, or vinyl for that matter. i was woundering about one more thing. i would like to purchase your "links outta here" tape, how much is it. and do you still have it on 8-track. if you do have it on 8-track are the 8-tracks new? thanks e-mail me i would like to buy one.
9/11/2000
paul d solomon [paulsolomon@juno.com]
Dear 8 track enthusiast:
I have a sharp 8 track stereo recorder (with VU meters) which has been working perfectly since 79 when I purchased it used when I was in 6th grade from a friend who was moving. (My diskman has been repaired 3 times, my record player, my casette player - yet my 8 track which has never been repaired and used more often for many more hours works perfectly. This was one of the better sharp components I have ever bought.) I have many 8 tracks - and I enjoy your site. I would like to know where I can purchase blank 8 tracks cheaply. I was going to use it to make my own 8 tracks - I am a musician and this is just for my own enjoyment.
Plus, I think that my Sharp 8 track which I hooked up my Yamaha YST-M10 computer speakers (I did it through the 8 phone jack) sounds great. Hope all is well.
Paul Solomon
PS - Who invented the 8 track? Also, I know that Radio Shack used to sell blanks, but the one in my area stopped. Do they have them in your area? (I am in Nassau County New York.)
Subject: 8-track player in my 1970 VW Bus!
8/12/200
Hey, I just wanted to say that I really enjoy 8 tracks. They do sound great on a good player. I recently installed a under dash player on my 1970 Volkswagen Bus! It really seems to belong in that old Bus! People wonder why I collect the old tapes, but they are cheaper than the CD's and a much better conversation piece. I wish I had a portable player I could bring with me all of the time. LONG LIVE THE 8 TRACKS!
From Tim Edwardshippie7074@aol.com
Thu 7/27/2000
Jim Viviano [jvivian@accessus.net]
Subject: Collector
After years of searching the web I have found some other folks who are as crazy as I. I have about 3,000 8 tracks in my collection and I have learned to repair tapes that have broken(most of the time). I have a 79 vette that I just reinstalled an original 8 track radio and we cruise to track tunes(kinda like car tunes!). I also take 8 tracks in to my high school students to keep the spirit alive. I usually show them one apart to explaine the mobius loop concept that they are based on. I havw an 8 track player in the room and the students pick selections to play during homework time-as a reward believe it or not! I even recorded tuPac on an 8 track just to blow their teenage mind! By the way I teach math-who says it is boring! I also dabble at fixing players if its something simple or adjustable and I buy 8 tracks at every garage sale I can. Too bad they don't know that they are diamonds in the rough-sometimes real rough, if you know what I mean!.. My mife may throw me out some day because the collection but I'll take my chances!
Glad to see some other 8 track nuts on the web. Keep up the good work!
Mr. V.
--
Bonzai Blue 79 L48 Plate: VET LXX 9
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