OnLine Reel To Reel Museum

[dave]

Here's an interesting website I came across while researching material for a story. The "R2RTexas' Reel To Reel Tape Recorder OnLine Museum" hosts many catalogs from electronics parts and equipment companies, such as Allied Radio, Lafayette, Burstein Applebee, Radio Shack and others. You can even view catalog pages featuring audio equipment from the years 1930 to 2013. There are also copies of ads from the early 1900's as well as the late 1800's.

Here's a statement from their web page that caught my eye. I had never had quite this thought about the role tape recorders played for the unknown musician.

" ...our collection includes analog reel tape recorders that were available to folks in the '40's,'50's, 60's, 70's and some '80's. It was during this period (in our opinion) that the tape recorder really began reflecting the true quality of the music. Often these recorders enabled the artist to develop their material prior to paying for professional studio time. And on rare occasions, their products, using these recorders, moved them forward to receive publishing, touring and record contracts (or at least, a weekend gig)."

Here's the R2R Museum home page:
reel2reeltexas.com/index.html

Here's a direct link to the catalogs:
reel2reeltexas.com/catIndex.html