From: Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]>


> You should contact Mike Spitz at ATR Services about that. He can tune up an ATR
> so you can have a
> 14" reel on one side and a 3" reel on the other, with Scotch 111
> ancient brittle tape, and it will
> play and fast-wind just fine. He demonstrated that very setup at the recent ARSC
> meeting. Mike said
> the many ATRs left the factor not quite right adjusted, and they get worse with
> time.

The US-built Ampex ATR-102 can certainly do that, but I don't think the ATR-700 can,
as it was a "hot-rodded" Teac design.  My ATR-800 (designed by Ampex and built by
Teac) certainly can.  It's a constant-tension machine and has no reel-size switch.
I spooled paper leader between a 3" reel and a 10-1/2" reel as a test before I
transferred a friend's tape from a 3" reel and you could slap the shuttle lever
back and forth, pop it in and out of play from fast wind, and rock the reels by
turning just one reel, all with no problems.