My mom once had a Teac reel-to-reel. One thing I will say for them: you get four or five hour long mix tapes at nice fidelity. Good for parties. 
Maybe five years ago my father got me, as a Christmas present, a fancy stand-alone cassette recorder. It has a timer (for recording radio shows, assuming your radio had a line out) and slow-speed option. An incredible white elephant. It (and the bonus dozen cassette blanks) is still in its box.
I’m so freaking glad that Dad has never asked me how I’m using the thing. He’s got maybe a month to live, so soon I’ll no longer feel like I have to hang on to it. Then I suppose I could Freecycle it.
i had a college teacher in the 90s who had one he still (at that time) used occasionally - He said yeah that was the real benefit of these… really up until digital formats, this was the only format that could go on that long.
I wonder if the machine above, although obviously obsolete technology, was as durable as it implied. A lot of tape decks have rubber wheels and belts that will wear out… All the good turntables are direct drive… maybe this was similar?
Dude. Give him an audio letter, ok?
I had a friend whose dad did audio in Berkeley in the 60s. Cleaning out the garage, he found about 100 hours of original Grateful Dead recordings. That will never happen with .mp3.
It is a funny ad in retrospect, but in another way the joke’s on us. Those things did last a helluva long time, but now our devices wear out so fast, sometimes in just a year or two.
Why not?
Should we tell him?
Does the ad still hold true if it is left to your great-grandson because no one else in the family wants it?
If you have one, I’ll take it. I don’t care much for my upstairs neighbor.
The Grateful Dead broke up. (howza!)
Whatever “weird instrument” your grandson will be playing. Ha! They’re all still playing the same instruments; it’s everything else that changed.
I’m sorry you’re going through the process of losing your dad.
Maybe you could take it over to him and record him (and you) retelling some memories. You can start with the story of the tape deck…?
Comedy = technology + time
My iPod was still working last time I checked. I just hope my great-grandchildren like The White Stripes.
Sure, the Grateful Dead may be gone, but live concert recording is still a thing, and modern digital recorders can make truly awesome recordings. Head on over to the Live Music Archive for plenty of examples.
too soon
I’m old enough to be grandpa - I’d still enjoy getting one of these myself and any geeky kid would be too. They’re still a helluva lot of fun to play with and modify, and are still -great- tools for imaginative musicians with electronics skills. I betcha that Amazon could even find grandson some fresh new 1800’ reels of tape!
I truly hope you keep the cassette recorder. From my misty eyed perspective, it’s not a white elephant, it’s a lovely gold watch.
