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Hello I am Andrew and I am fixing vintage (often incredible engineering feats)

Discussion in 'Introducing myself' started by Bonymarrony, Aug 30, 2025.

  1. Bonymarrony

    Bonymarrony New Member

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    Hi
    I used to be quite interested in electronics at school I am 53 now and my soldering is not what it used to be! Here’s my current work basket!!!
    upload_2025-8-30_18-15-7.jpeg
    any tips would be welcomed!
    Andrew
     
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  2. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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    Welcome to the forum! Just keep telling yourself that repairs are 1/2 the fun!

    Luckily all this great equipment not only looks good but they still play music. I've been on a little hoarding bender lately with four new to me boomboxes in the last two weeks, nothing dynamite but still classics like the Realistic Minisette III I just posted, just the smell of the insides makes me think of the old days were us kids were almost as excited about broken electronics cuz we could then take the screwdriver to them and try to figure out what everything was. My neighbor was an electronics wiz and let us know very early that caps and TV's should be handled very carefully.
     
  3. TooCooL4

    TooCooL4 Well-Known Member

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    Welcome to Stereo2go Bonymarrony
     
  4. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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    Oh yea, I like My Mate Vince on YouTube, he's done several portables by checking continuity. His videos are long but if your cleaning or doing dishes, they can be very motivating.
     
  5. Bonymarrony

    Bonymarrony New Member

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    Thank you for the kind welcome everyone. I must admit that I seem to be better at spotting and buying things than fixing them at the moment. I agree that the sights, sounds and smells of things we had as a child or young adult are powerful stuff. I spotted a Sharp “back to back” double cassette player boombox which I had in the mid 1980s. I couldn’t resist buying it if only to demonstrate to my kids how I used to record stuff from John Peel with my fingers hovering over Play/Pause/Record. Tricky stuff as Peel had a habit of putting every 6th or 7th record on at the wrong speed. Tracks would start at any point during what could be a 2 second or 2 minute ramble about all sorts of stuff . I have a large number of cassettes - many without track listings from those shows which are now treasured items - largely because of the wonderful commentary and random thoughts from Peel. I listened to a long forgotten “Sundays” Peel Session the other day and it was incredible to say it was recorded on the Sharp on a TDK D90.
     
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  6. Bonymarrony

    Bonymarrony New Member

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    Thank you - I’m getting better at forcing myself to watch YouTube stuff - I much prefer written instructions and a diagram.
     
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  7. Bonymarrony

    Bonymarrony New Member

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    Thank you!
    Thank you ! I used to blow out or melt components quite regularly when I was learning. I did the first ever GCSEs when they came in and one new subject was control technology. In those days LEDs were bloody expensive (several £s each) and pretty huge !
     
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  8. Mister X

    Mister X Moderator Staff Member

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    I'm definately seeing a trend to collector-restorers in the vintage audio world. But most of us like to collect more than restore, at least these treasured units aren't getting thrown out as much.
     
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