Welcome to the only site dedicated to the greatest sounding 2" recorder on the planet.
| WANTED | RESTORE | PARTS | SCHEMATICS | LINKS | MUSIC |
WHAT IS THIS SITE ABOUT
ATTENTION 3M M79 OWNERS: This site is created for you, people saving the lives of their blessed 3M M79 analog tape machines!
Let me introduce myself. My Name is Mikie G. I am not an electrical engineer or a master designer, just a regular recording guy who was looking for info on the 3M M79 and found little support for this venerable piece of ancient technology. The current situation for 3M 79 owners is bleak.
1) MANUFACTURE SUPPORT-3M Mincom is long defunked. Bart Gass possibly abducted by aliens.
2) SERVICE-There is only one service company in the USA that openly champions the cause for the 3M M79: GRS (Ted Jolly and company)
3) PARTS from a 1970's tape machine= Can't buy them at Radio Shack or any other local store. Columbo would have a hard time finding standard replacement parts.
What NOW!-
OPEN AGENDA: I am putting together this site with the hope of creating a friendly worldwide community 3M 79 network in an effort to help each other keep our blue gems running long into the future.
HIDDEN AGENDA: The romantic thought that people will one day realize the delightfully mysterious qualities of this amazing sounding machine and triumphantly return to 2" tape. No doubt the biggest praise of the M 79 is the sound but the legitimate gripe is the technical hurdles to keep it running well. I hope we call pull together and make the latter a bit more bearable.
As for hard to find parts... I call on all user to share your resources and join the Long Term Global Treasure Hunt Team for lost and missing 3M parts. I recently found the Motorola MC672 chip that I keep hearing is "gone" from a supplier but the cost is high.
We can begin to find new solutions to old problems and historical Information, technical Information... Also including other resources for the novice: Tape Machine Basics 101. Are you looking for a 3M M79? We will try to keep track of machines for sale: working or scraps to preserve the bones of these old fossil. Did you know that MCI used some similar parts on their machines? I found a Airpot on EBAY the other day searching MCI Parts.
TODAY 2007
This site will also be the best resource for finding information to keep your machine going strong and will contain places, people, pictures and videos to be helpful to apprentice and expirenced Tech's alike. It is my personal goal (with God's grace) to use this machine to come to a greater understanding of Electronics, Electro-Mechanics, Physics and Patience.
A blog has been created for asking questions, finding resources and sharing tips will magically appear here. 3M 79 BLOG
Also stay tuned for the video Podcast @ Itunes showing basic and advanced techniques to maintain and tweak your machine.
Click to join 3M_Recorders
I will try to offer some service and part sourceing for a fee if you are not comfortable with working on your machine. Links for service Pro's like GRS will also be included on this site.
To learn how I got involved follow this link MY 3M HISTORY.
