Thank you, my friends!!! Right now I have three Discmans seriously tinkered by previous owners, trying to revive at least one to restore my self-esteem and since they are all 'grails': D-150, D-250, and my all-time fav. D-50MkII, giving up is NOT an option for me! This is while waiting for the Elephant arrival............. and how did I forget?!?! I also have one Sharp-mono bbox as a present from @Longman (my first Sharp EVER!), plus Hitachi TRK-9150 which I could not help myself buying when noticed on eBay with intact antenna (what a MIRACLE!!!), plus National/Panasonic RF-5410 mono... all of them hiding from my Boss and waiting for some love!... One thing for sure: there is a good chance I will have to file bankruptcy because of this ChinaVirus, but the hobby (plus music!) is keeping me sane
I'm glad your getting through it Jorge, these are tough times and sometimes distractions are very soothing. There's something very rewarding about cracking open a piece of audio equipment and fixing it's issues. I do keep all heavy wrenches and big screwdrivers away from the work area to keep from throwing things. Hopefully we're turning the corner with this virus and people can get back out and enjoy life again.
Elephant on it's way Wednesday morning Jorge! Happy Birthday (Belated) It's going to the right home & you will finish the job of restoring it!!
That's a great story nickeccles, I feel like both of you came out great in the transaction, so good I might go out in the shop and have an ice cold Delirium Tremens! I'll admit though that your detailing and restorations are the benchmark, some of mine look like they came out of hard duty in an automotive body shop and there's no way they'd be shiny again, it can be frustrating but having them work again helps. Hopefully Jorge will post some action shots of the Elephant.
After a lot of trial and error I got my CRS-4000 blasting again! What a great way to celebrate with a can of Miracle On Ice Golden Ale from our local Lift Bridge Brewery. It was 40 years ago this year that our young boys went up against the Russian Juggernaut of hall of fame hockey players. I imagine some of the players were cranking similar boomboxes at hockey practice. She's a beast, everything works and she gets fairly loud but like most Marantz Portables, they never bottom out and the bass isn't aggressive. I'll spend some time cleaning some more of the dirt off but it's kind of nice when you can see the battle history, the paint specs are a badge of honor.
It was closed! But not for long....I was out in the shop working and watching some old Burt Reynolds Movie that was a perfect period piece for this box. I cleaned up the inside really good, it was amazing how supple and spongy the rubber wheels were, not rock hard like I usually find. Devo's Shout! The album that got them dropped from the label. Personally I liked Devo more when they were kind of underground and people didn't know what to make of them. I found this gem at the local thrift store, it's a good day when you find any Devo Music.
[QUOTE="Mister X, post: 41372, member: 352]...Personally I liked Devo more when they were kind of underground and people didn't know what to make of them. I found this gem at the local thrift store, it's a good day when you find any Devo Music.[/QUOTE] ...yeah, you gave me my todays song: MONGOLOIDE
If you mean Mongoloid autoreverser, the song is so good it has a Wikipedia Entry! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongoloid_(song) The bands kept hitting us like sand in the eyes, new styles, different sounds, shiny leather, beat up leather, guitars, keyboards, etc. It was hard not to love music back then, grabbin a tape and boombox and heading to the beach gave you memories that last forever. I can still remember hearing all of those songs 40 years ago, a lot of them they still play on the radio (some way too much).
A present from St.Nick, @nickeccles has arrived!!! Elephant the Second Beer'n'Boomboxes is being pushed into the Big Boys territory.... time to pack all my broken Discmans into one big box and start doing something Fun, but today I will be celebrating The Second Coming!!! Boomboxes-Beer-and a drop of the Good Stuff This one will be even more beautiful than my first one, I promise! I will start a separate post on my restoration efforts... and while celebrating 'The Arrival' and considering the cruelties/repercussions from The Boss and also contemplating the inevitable Pains of tomorrow's Hangover: my humble self is listening to some sad but somehow uplifting tunes thru my fav bbox, Panasonic-in-mono: She is very naughty: some days all screechy and noisy, but today she is a DOLL!!!
Great to see that Elephant the second arrived safely. I hate to think how much the shipping cost. I would keep that one quiet from "The Boss". Lets hope she doesn't check out this forum to see what you are up to.
Wow, nickeccles must have given it his personal cleaning before he shipped it, I'm jealous, I can never get mine to shine like that. Hopefully you can work your wonders, that's one of those front and center models you can't help stare at.
Nick is great lads, i myself have just given away over 10 boomboxes on the other forum, way to go guys
So pleased to see it arrived intact Jorge! Didn't take long either after the courier palaver which was kind of predictable at the moment! Must have taken some unwrapping that parcel! It's gone to the best home it could ever find!!
Oh, YES!!! I had completely different plans for the evening ((bought myself another 'unobtanium' Sony Discman, D-10 which flatly refuses to power up! Its like a disease... we have a few threads ongoing about Discmans not powering up)) but by the time I unwrapped the Elephant I got thirsty, and lazy
Just hanging out in the shop hammering away but I think I've got it just about done! I'm replacing the front shock which requires removing the whole strut, these little BMWs are pretty easy to work on but you have to have the right tools which in my case includes a big helping of Duvel. Belgium Beer is slowly disappearing from our stores as everybody and their brother seems to be bottling IPAs and it's worse than the old days when it was just Miller, Bud, and Coors. Anyway, I've turned the corner after a can of PB Blaster and some late nights, hopefully tomorrow the little guy will be on the road again, these E30s don't have a lot of HP but they're really fun to drive.