TAC Central => Hobbies => Topic started by: b_hill_86 on December 21, 2023, 08:05:05 PM
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Back when I bought my car one thing I wanted to add was an 8 track player. Being a 77, that was the last year for the console mounted players. I found one and installed it just for fun and picked up a few tapes. I’ve been collecting some vinyl for a few years just for fun and started picking up a few tapes here and there along with a Sony player/recorder for my basement setup.
The 7 tapes pictured below are ones I’ve slowly acquired over the past several years. I recently found a lot locally however that I decided to pick up. Price was right for around 70 tapes and a portable player. Many of the tapes need new pads but many are still good and surprisingly sound good. The player ended up having some issues with the volume and tone pots and the tape head bracket either was broke or broke while I was messing with it. I tore it apart and fixed the bracket along with some contact cleaner for the pots and it actually sounds pretty decent for what it is.
My haul is below. Some good stuff, some not so good. All fun though.
https://youtube.com/shorts/k9gdzrO7RSE?si=qIC24R0Dj6A8tF_-
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You hit the jackpot with the 8-track library. Do you have a functional Pontiac console mounted player in your 77?
For me this is like stepping back in time. My 1973 came with the factory AM/FM stereo, but no 8-track. I installed an aftermarket quadraphonic 8-track (I don't remember who made it). Listening to Santana Abraxas in quadraphonic, I didn't think car audio could get any better. I kept my library in a small suitcase style tape holder in the back seat.
I can remember tapes jamming and breaking. We would pull apart the cartridge and patch them up. Sometimes having to cut out a foot or two of tape. I can recall a fair number of cartridges along the side of the road, pitched out the window of a frustrated driver.
Thanks for sharing!
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That is awesome!!! America, Neil Dimond, Meatloaf! I really need to install my player. I have a few really good tapes as well. Nice find!
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Very nice. I still have a lot of the 8-tracks that I had in the late 70's/early and mid-80's. Once I got married in '85, tapes (actually I went to cassette in 1983 or '84) were no longer a priority. Food and electric bills were :shock:
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You hit the jackpot with the 8-track library. Do you have a functional Pontiac console mounted player in your 77?
For me this is like stepping back in time. My 1973 came with the factory AM/FM stereo, but no 8-track. I installed an aftermarket quadraphonic 8-track (I don't remember who made it). Listening to Santana Abraxas in quadraphonic, I didn't think car audio could get any better. I kept my library in a small suitcase style tape holder in the back seat.
I can remember tapes jamming and breaking. We would pull apart the cartridge and patch them up. Sometimes having to cut out a foot or two of tape. I can recall a fair number of cartridges along the side of the road, pitched out the window of a frustrated driver.
Thanks for sharing!
Yea, my car originally came with an AM/FM stereo only but I wanted the 8track deck so I installed one. It works great!
That is awesome!!! America, Neil Dimond, Meatloaf! I really need to install my player. I have a few really good tapes as well. Nice find!
Post em up here if you want! It’d be cool to see what others have. These certainly aren’t the pinnacle of audio quality but I find them interesting. I was born in the 80s so grew up with some vinyl, many cassettes and most of my music collection is CDs but 8 tracks have a certain draw to them. Maybe more so when you don’t HAVE to use them as your only source of music lol. For the record I also have a Bluetooth amp my factory radio and tape deck are run through but I can switch to streaming music from my phone which is a nice option
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Funny this came up. I was just relating some of the problems I had with a 74 Corvette, on another forum, and it had an 8 Track Player. The car is long gone, but I still have the 8tracks. In fact I have a Reel to Reel Tape Player that makes 8tracks. I'll have to dig that stuff out and see if any of it still works...Thanks for the Memories.
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Brian, I'll definitely dig mine up.
When I was building my trans am, I actually had the player wired up and I'd play them as I was wrenching. I have some good ones (at least I think they are) like Black Sabbath, Eagles and the smokey and the bandit sound track.
I found these on my phone from back then.
My setup with ZZ top
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53414185369_a9a9d1cb2a_z.jpg)
My SATB tape
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53414185029_a9a1c7dea5_z.jpg)
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Awesome!
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Very cool!
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Lots of good music there. 8) Ram Jam.... wow. There can't be that many Ram Jam 8 tracks left out there.
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Lots of good music there. 8) Ram Jam.... wow. There can't be that many Ram Jam 8 tracks left out there.
Took me a little bit to get one for a reasonable price. Pretty good album actually though. Much better than their second album anyway.
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That's great! Some of that was at the end of 8 tracks.
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I always carried a book of matches with my 8 tracks - sometimes the wedge made them play better…
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Fun memories. Mom had a 67 firebird 400 when I was a kid. It had an eight track in it, no idea if it was factory or aftermarket. She had the white album on tape. I loved listening to that driving in that car. One day with my brother at the wheel the tape jammed (very typical) and out it came. A half mile of tape stuck in the machine. The cassette promptly went out of the window never to be heard again :sad:
I had a home stereo, record player (yes, they are records not VINYL, lol) with an 8 track. I thought it was the coolest because I could record onto the 8 track from the record player! Can you imagine that kind of technology :shock: :shock:
When cassettes started to come into their own another of my brothers had an underdash unit that played both 8 tr. AND cassette! That was the cats meow! By the time I started driving, 1980 cassettes had pretty much taken over. I must've had 4 or 5 of those brief case looking tape holders packed with all kinds of driving music. I was pretty anal about them and would cut up file folders as the sleeve inside the case. I typed, yes with a typewriter, the name of the cassette. That way when you opened the case they all looked the same.
I have an 8 track in my TA but its not hooked up. I do have a couple of tapes I put out for display. I think one is Sat. Night Fever and maybe the Village People. Good disco stuff of course :lol: