Record It All! with the Bell & Howell 87500 Vintage Cassette Tape Recorder

By the late 1960's Bell & Howell had established a very fine reputation for audio visual equipment. Their tape recorders were well known, and at this time they entered the cassette recorder market. It seems that they chose SANYO of Japan to make their machines and SANYO did a very fine job to be sure.

********

Sponsored by:

The Amazing Dream Angel Oracle Computer Software program. Get inspiration and guideance by talking to your personal Dream Angels while you are awake and on your computer! Visit: www.clydesight.com/DAO TODAY!

********

This video explores the Bell & Howell Model 87500 vintage monophonic cassette recorder from circa 1968.

The machine uses a highly stable drive mechanism made by Sanyo. This mechanism was very popular with American and other manufacturers and appears in many vintage cassette tape recorders from this time period.

However, the Bell & Howell had such a reputation that they sold MANY of these machines in various forms, some, as seen here, in a "Record All" kit which contained all the accessories you would need. Other configurations included a snap on external amplifier and speaker! This is one of the most popular cassette tape recorders from the 1960's and part of it's success is the very fine mechanism and amplifier, as well as the quality of the materials and design.

The Bell & Howell Model 87500 will soon become a part of the Vintage Tape Recorder Hall Of Fame collection, with its own exhibit. Be sure and visit it at:

http://www.vintagetaperecorderhof.com

Listings there are updated monthly!


*********
Copyright Disclaimer:

This is an educational video, a critique, and report on an historic piece of vintage audio electronic equipment that is no longer manufactured or sold in stores. It is covered by the Fair Use Section of U.S. Copyright Law:

"Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."

The selection of music played by the vintage cassette tape recorder is from The Dream Angel Oracle computer program. It is called "Dream Angels" and is an original neoclassical composition composed by Tim Thompson and performed by his XV Orchestra.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• B&H87500

[airplaneengine]

Just the other day, I picked one of these up at a thrift store for $5! It was just the recorder, no box or accessories. It came with a transformer, but it was the wrong one. The polarity was opposite and although it was rated at 9 volts dc, it was putting out 15 volts dc. I didn't catch that at first, so when I plugged it in, all it did was hum and nothing else. After playing with it for about 2 minutes, I unplugged it and placed some batteries in it where it worked perfectly!

[clydesight]

@airplaneengine

Thanks for your comment! And congrats on finding one of these machines in working condition.

You can get a universal AC/DC adapter from Radio Shack that has multiple voltages and a polarity changing "adaptaplug". That will keep your machine running with no more need for batteries! Go to their website to see it. The part number is 273-315 and you should take your machine to the store, set the adapter to 7.5 volts and get the right "adaptaplug" for it..

[clydesight]

@airplaneengine

Hi again. You can also get the Radio Shack adapter part number: 273-316 (it has more current capability.) The 315 supports 300 MA and the 316 supports 1000 MA.

The B&H original adapter is rated at 125 MA, so either adapter from RS will work fine.

The 1000 MA can be used with other equipment that might need more current capacity, so depending on your needs, for the same price, it might be a better deal.

[airplaneengine]

@clydesight

I'll check those out! We have a surplus store (AxMan Surplus) in town that carries many different things like science equipment, electronic parts (tubes, capacitors...), rotary phones, tube equipment and many other random parts. Once every so often I'll come across something like a 8-track player new in the box! I'll check out their power supplies, see if there's one that matches. I'll most likely get one from Radio Shack as they would likely be more dependable Thanks for the info!

[clydesight]

@clydesight Seeing these machines in institutions may give the impression of higher standards, but many were simply consumer machines sold to institutions. However, the quality was already there. Many had features needed by institutions (i.e. slide projector synch, multiple headphone outputs) which were not included in the consumer models.

As far as I know, Eiki, Caifone, Audiotronics and Newcomb made machines exclusively for the institutional market.and had no consumer outreach.

[clydesight]

@thatmuse76 B&H and Wollensak were not held to any industrial standard, as no such thing ever existed. They were well known for being quality durable machines. However, some of their machines were made by Japanese or European makers (i.e. Sanyo and Philips).

What may be confusing you is that both of them were heavily into the educational and in institutional market. So you'd find them in schools and libraries... more...

[thatmuse76]

@clydesight

Weren't Bell and Howell and Wollensak made to a standard to hold up to industrial standards. I remember apart from Eiki and Califone equipment, there was plenty of Bell and Howell and Wollensak.

[clydesight]

@thatmuse76 Yes, it was a pretty nice set for its time. Thanks for your comment.

[clydesight]

@thatmuse76 I think I saw some of those models. I would not be surprised if they did use a B&H machine, as they are quite good. Pitch control is nice. I bet you could play the organ along with a tape like you said and have them pretty much in tune. Now a days, we have MIDI and synthesizers (as in the Rodgers organs).

[thatmuse76]

If you bought a Wurlitzer organ in the late 60's early 70's, some models had a tape deck which you could either use play along tapes or record your organ playing and the tape deck looked almost identical to your Bell and Howell, except only the part from the speaker grill and below was exposed. It also had a pitch control next to the volume using an identical knob. Transport controls were all identical.