Grundig reel to reel

[donnamevans]

I remember my dad playing his Grundig reel to reel player to me when I was little. I always remembered the smell of the tapes too as the player used to get very hot. As it ran on valves, it broke down a lot, but the sound was very good. For his birthday, I'd love to buy him some replacement valves for his player, so he can get all nostalgic again. Any idea where I might be able to find them in the uk?

[ClaudineJones]

You can get them on ebay donna, or Google reel to reel repairs for places like this Vintage recorders (Vintage Reel to reel tape recorder collection, Sales, duplication and repairs ) (http://www.vintagerecorders.co.uk/)

[FLYING SAUCER]

I used to own a Grundig TK5 reel to reel (among others) when I was 13 - my friend was into radios and stuff! As I remember Grundig was a very solid made machine, but unfortunately ours set fire nearly when one of the transformers broke down. I think you can get replacement valves from Mullard - as i remember rightly, there was a blue/green valve that operated as a sound level? Radio Fairs may be a good source of info? Think they have one at Doncaster (England)

Good Luck!

[Trickyvee]

My dad had (and still has) one of these. I think it was Grundig...not sure. He let me loose on it when I was very small to get recordings of me in my prime lol. It had a little light with two green bits that came together when you made a sound. I used to yell to get the two green bits to meet in the middle. The microphone was a big round thing with a mesh front. I can still remember the metallic smell of it when I held it infront of my nose.