Greetings Boombox Lovers! This week we have a small but beautiful mini on the repair/restore bench - The Sharp GF-8 in silver (Of Course!) This was sold in red finish & black finish too! I am unsure of the date of manufacture & it does seem quite a rare bird now in 2018! The GF-8 has been on my radar for around 6 years now since I saw one on the internet & fell in love & that was before I knew that it really is quite a special little stereo......... So early last week this little guy bowled in from France packed up really well just as the seller promised - It took ages to unwrap it in fact & what a joy to behold once in my hands! A gorgeous aluminium fascia that wraps right around each side of the unit, part brushed finish with highlights in subtle chrome! It's the first thing you notice when you first see one of these! I think it's unlikely that anyone could expect a GF-8 in better cosmetic condition than this one, absolutely no damage or missing parts anywhere & the top hinges undamaged on the lift up cover - All the other listings I have seen over the years have had damage or the top missing or broken! With minimal cleaning to perform, it was time to open it & investigate the somewhat erratic & wobbly playback - I doubt very much that this has ever been open before & can say confidently that it was on it's original belts! It played albeit very badly & winding was weak.......... In order to understand this cassette deck mechanism & to ensure that I am singing from the same spreadsheet as the deck, the only option was to remove the whole shooting game that is the deck mechanism......... With some great tunes & playlists loaded onto the media server, my main Hi-Fi system provided the entertainment & the fun & games began! Amazingly this deck needed only 3 small screws & 5 pluggable connectors removed enabling it to be lifted out of the stereo - Now this is VERY delicate & complex cassette deck with it's unusual slot loading design & a myriad of springs & levers not to mention solenoids to enable it to perform & also to play & record like a conventional machine......... On turning the deck over, I was greeted by four belts & a arrangement not seen before by me! The images show what I mean - These belts were clinging on for dear life as if they were about to go up the boat without a paddle! They were also brittle & fell apart as I removed them & set about delving in the large belt bucket to locate some suitable replacements! I decided to remove the flywheel completely to oil the capstan bearing & check the playback idler tyre (It was fine) Pretty awesome engineering design at work here inside the deck & a little scary too! I was able to manually "Load" the deck into the play position after repacing the belts.......This is not an easy task & great care must be taken not to disturb any of the tiny components & springs!! Clean the pinch roller of any oil that may have got onto it & turning the flywheel very carefully I tested all the different modes to ensure it was working as it should - All seemed good so time for a large glass of ice cold pop & a cake bar (You can't beat that Dr Kipling) Refreshments served their porpoise & it was back to the Sharps!! Next step was to put the deck back in the stereo & apply power & see what happens....... Due to the complex workings of the deck I found an old snapped cassette tape & used it to "Fool" the deck into thinking there was a cassette in it enabling a proper test of all transport functions! All Trumpets!! Everything working & this also allowed me to clean the pinch roller as the capstan shaft retracts when there is no tape in the deck making cleaning the pinch roller bloody impossible & left me feeling caught out like a kipper!! So "Dummy Cassette" left to run for a while so I could really clean the roller & after I removed it I had good access to the heads which were filthy.......... I was pondering at this point "What would it sound like" or will I have more issues to sort out........ What nonsense!! Tape playback was almost spot on, just a very small azimuth tweak restored the missing treble response we had a nice stable playback in my headphones!! Next it was time to clean clean clean & so the switches, record/play bar & the whole casing & controls were treated to a long a deep clean resulting in a stunning finish that I never expected - Time spent cleaning yields good results, I was taught his many years ago as an apprentice service engineer by a great teacher! Many useful tips given to me so I always made sure I got ears!! Some two hours later the little GF-8 was being reassembled which is very easy task, plug in the speaker & internal microphone looms & ease the case back over the controls on the top, replace screws, control caps & top panel & it is finished at last!! A longer then usual job due to the delicate intricate mechanism that is inside this Sharp & extra care taken to ensure that no damage was caused! If the cap fits - wear the boots!! Testing Times...........the GF-8 has a real digital tuner FM/MW/LW & not an analogue varicap in sight & what a great tuner it is! My den is a hive of spurious digital & radio emissions making radio reception in here very difficult! Most portable stereo's really struggle to receive anything but BBC Radio Sussex on 104.8 Mhz...... The GF-8 pulled in all the well known FM stations with ease - I have only 3 or 4 portables that can do this so a great result so far!! Tape playback too was really good for such a baby stero, the 3 inch speakers with oversize magnets perform very well & the deck works perfectly including APSS & recording! So we come to the end of a long write up leaving us to look at the images & marvel over what is certainly an incredible product designed & built like nothing today is!! On my radar for so long & now a reality, the beautiful Sharp GF-8 Et Viola: Hi-Res Images Here: https://onedrive.live.com/?id=BEA218B70F2B18D1%2132184&cid=BEA218B70F2B18D1 4K Video: https://onedrive.live.com/?id=BEA218B70F2B18D1%2123602&cid=BEA218B70F2B18D1 https://youtu.be/rZa3Rpstnq4
Those are great looking boxes, I still haven't had the chance to check one out since they go for pretty good money and are somewhat rare. You might not need a Christmas Tree this year, you have enough LED meters on your boxes to light up the whole room.
A great choice Nick. I am envious. According to Radio Museum it was released in 1980 https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/sharp_gf_8hl.html That sounds right to me, as I believe the Sharps and the Sony 2001 also from 1980 were the very first radios to have digital preset tuning. That was cutting edge technology back then when setting the presets on almost all TVs involved twiddling a series of knobs or thumbwheels. The preset tuning in these radios was achieved by having a Microprocessor inside them, a device that wouldn't arrive in most homes until cheap computers like the Spectrum came on the market a couple of years later.
I can't help but check out the design cues, a lot of people don't remember how life-changing digital tuning and displays were back then, especially 1980. Before that it was hand tuning the stations and digital changed all that with "presets" with the first generation being very expensive, even crummy Hong Kong Digital Watches were several hundred dollars with high end digital watches going for thousands of dollars. As far as I know this is the first and maybe only box with a top loading cassette transport, but they still give you the convenience of a removable door for access to the important internals. Overall it could have been a box aimed at females but they printed the word "METAL" right in the middle to make sure it wasn't confused with something light-weight. This probably was a game-changer at the time.
always liked analogue tuning better myself lads, great pickup nick lad, reminds me of the pioneer sk 909 for some reason
Ah yes my beautiful & fat Orange Cat!! Mr Bouteille Always washing too!! He is always by my side with my labrador in winter months!!
