Studer A800MK III 2" 24 track reel to reel tape deck. RESTORED!

We are reeltoreeltech.com. We buy, repair and sell all types of reel to reel tape decks, from mono tube machines to 2" 24 track units. We are ATR and RTM tape dealers, and stock lots of it in all tape widths.

This is the Studer A800 2" 24 track multitrack reel to reel decks. It was a staple in the analog recording world, and was and is used in many world class studios. This particular unit has massive history behind it, as it came from Little Mountain Studios here in Vancouver. Little Mountain was THE go-to rock and heavy metal studio to go to from the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s, and Loverboy and Bon Jovi put the studio on the map. Legend had it that Jon Bon Jovi heard the first Loverboy album, loved the sound of it, and wanted to record their third album at the studio it was recorded at. That album was Slippery When Wet, one of the best selling albums of all time. That put Bruce Fairbairn and Bob Rock on the producer/engineer map, as well as Mike Fraser, and they and Little Mountain went on to generate many rock and metal albums, from artists like Aerosmith, AC/DC, David Lee Roth, Metallica, and countless others.

Their studio tech, John Vrtacic had rebuilt this deck in 2000, and we now did it again, 26 years later. (see one of the pictures here from one of the power supplies)

We bought this deck from Robert, the current owner of Little Mountain (now called Hipposonic) about three years ago, and over the last 3 years have spent about 200 hours rebuilding the deck from the ground up.

If you search 'Little Mountain, Big Sound' on Youtube, you'll find a 40 minute documentary on Little Mountain Studios, and in it, you'll see Mike Fraser talk about the drum sound that Bob Rock got in the loading bay area of the studio. Against the back wall of the loading bay, you'll see two Studer decks, this one, as well as the A80 24 track that originally came from Mushroom Studios, also here in Vancouver. We purchased that deck as well, and are about to finish it shortly.

We have a large article on our website about all of the work that was done to this deck, but in short:

-replaced all electrolytic capacitors on all PC boards, including all audio boards as well as the transport board. That's over 1200 capacitors in total (see the pix here). Only name brand caps from Mouser and Digikey were used.
-replaced one reel motor that had a terminal sheared off (done by a previous 'tech')
-replaced bearings throughout the transport as needed
-changed the incandescent VU meter bulbs to LED to reduce power consumption and generated heat
-replaced the 15 amp IEC power connector back to the original 20 amp one
-purchased a new power cord for the deck
-replaced all 24 VU meter switches that switch between outputs 1 and 2, as all were intermittent
-replaced the pinch roller

-replaced a broken spring on the supply reel side that was causing tape spillage

-replaced/repaired a number of 'cat's eye'/shadow switches that were defective

-replaced the reel motor coupling discs with new ones from Audiohouse in Germany

-replaced several other tantalum capacitors and transistors, causing dead or noisy channels

-wherever we replaced a tantalum capacitor that was bad, we did so throughout all 24 channels

-adjusted all parameters of the tape transport as per the service manual

-calibrated the deck to +3db, using RTM SM911 tape

-cleaned excessive flux off all PC boards as left over by Studer during construction

-replaced various screws that had gone missing over time with proper metric ones

-test run the deck for 50 hours, checking all 24 channels for record and playback functions.

Reverb doesn't allow external links to our website, however if you look under the 'tech' section, 'brand specific', and 'Revox/Studer', you'll find the full article describing the rebuilding process, and more pictures than we can post here. We've also put a ton of posts up on our Facebook page over the last bunch of months also describing the rebuilding process.

The deck is flat from almost 20Hz to about 23Khz at 15 IPS, and from just under 50Hz to 24Khz at 30 IPS.

We will be adding more pictures in the next couple of days showing the tape head condition as well as the JRF head report. Note that we do have the covers that go over the audio boards, we'll take a picture of that as well, however we strongly recommend running the deck with the covers off, to better aid air flow around the deck. The deck did not come with the large rear cover over the power supplies and back of the deck, but again, these decks run hot, and should be run with the covers off.

Looking for a killer deck to fully capture that warm analog sound, with a massive history behind it? Look no further!

Cosmetically, the deck has some marks and bruises from being used at Little Mountain as shown.

Shipping- We ship worldwide. The VU meter bridge will be crated, as will the transport, and the deck will be sent via truck with full insurance. Any shipments will need an SSN or EIN (business number) for US customs, as is required for any shipment to the US over $2,500. The shipping price quoted is worst case to the East Coast, shipping in the West will be somewhat less, and any excess will be refunded upon shipping.