I have a sort of step-uncle in Florida who is an engineer for a big TV news station. The newsroom is constantly upgrading to the latest technologies and whenever the old gear gets cycled out or otherwise discarded, my uncle likes to bring it home for tinkering. Some of the stuff that gets thrown away is amazing. In his garage, he has a bunch of salvaged broadcast-grade videotape machines and a library of cartridges of shows like The Three Stooges that were tossed when everything went digital. There are rack-mounted preamps and processors, reel-to-reel decks, mixers, monitors – all sorts of weird, obsolete, pro-format analog gear he has just pulled out of the dumpster over the years. And the stories are as awesome as the toys.
Here are the JBL studio monitors that went in the trash because the surrounds were bad. There’s also some strange tape decks and a couple of Uncle G’s personal turntables – a garage sale Beogram and the Kenwood he bought new in the mid-70’s that doesn’t have a scratch on it. Of course, there’s an awesome 60’s and 70’s LP collection to go with it. Always a blast to visit!
Revolution Sounds 