what is a good jam box for that purpose? what unit would make good tapes if you played and sang right into it, or took it to record musicians playing or something like that? 

i can find lots of stuff about how different boxes sound but not so much about how they record i guess. some of the units sound great on playback and have lots of features, however they can have a significant noise floor if you try and record live with them {a function of having the mics in the same housing as the transport mechanism i suppose, however, some must be much better than others in this regard.}

is there something in the 200 dollar or there abouts range that would serve a musician well in this respect? 

Sony TC-D5M, 

but actually there are few good units for that purpose, check this link

http://jamesriverfilm.wordpres...und-of-analog-audio/

Sony wm6 dc

no question

I'd +1 for the Sony WM-D6C too.

Nice small portable size. Great little recorder. Plenty about due to long manufacturing run and many recordists now ditching them in favor of digital medium.

If you want something slightly more exotic then a good second option would be a Marantz CP430 / PMD430.

3 head tape deck allows in-line monitoring of live recording and independently adjustable recording levels for L&R channels with fine bias control. Also has built-in speaker for general monitoring. All aforementioned features not found on the Sony WM-D6C, but where you lose the Dolby C from the D6C you gain the dBx on the CP430 if noise reduction is important to you.

agree re the pmd 430 --

the 3 head design makes the difference -

and they last for hours on 4 D cells

Marantz PMD430 Portable Cassette Recorder

hey, that's a lot of good info, thank you guys