[Simple Man]

My BIL had a 4 track tape player he received for a birthday present. One of the tapes was Leonard Nimoy singing.....

[Firedup6975]

Collectible for sure.

[tigergto]

Back in the late sixties I had. Simca that had a 4 track player it . If I were too mention that today, probably no one would know they even existed. My wife doesn’t, and sometimes I even questioned whether my memory was accurate.

[OG68]

Originally Posted by tigergto

Back in the late sixties I had. Simca that had a 4 track player it . If I were too mention that today, probably no one would know they even existed. My wife doesn’t, and sometimes I even questioned whether my memory was accurate.

Mention what??? The Simca or the 4 track player?

[tigergto]

Originally Posted by OG68

Mention what??? The Simca or the 4 track player?

Lol. I was talking about the 4 track but now that You mentioned it, I’m sure most people wouldn’t know what a Simca was. It was a Small car made in France. Mine was the only one in my area that I knew of.

[Heybuck]

Originally Posted by tigergto

Back in the late sixties I had. Simca that had a 4 track player it . If I were too mention that today, probably no one would know they even existed. My wife doesn’t, and sometimes I even questioned whether my memory was accurate.

For a VERY brief time in 1969, I owned a Simca Aronde. Only bought it as stop gap car (didn't have any money in those days - Come to think of it, I STILL don't have any money). But it was cheap and very reliable small car. I think the only expense I had over about a 4 month period was putting petrol in it. Don't even remember changing the oil. Loaned it to a friend to go to Uni, it got stolen. Never saw it again. (But I still have my friend)

[unruhjonny]

Ok, I've heard of '4 track' before, and heard that it was similar to '8 track', but this adapter and discussion made me look it up;

4-Track (youtube) video

interesting!

not captivating, but interesting!

Now, my question is this;
Were '4 tracks' as prone to over tightening and breaking at the glued ends as '8 tracks'?

[cruzn68]

Wasn't the 4-track invented by Lear of Lear jet fame?

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by cruzn68

Wasn't the 4-track invented by Lear of Lear jet fame?

Madman Muntz came up with the 4 track. Bill Lear came up with the 8 track. There's a short history of the two types here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereo-Pak

[Simple Man]

Muntz also made cars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muntz_Car_Company

[1stgenbird]

I grew up in the 8-track era and never heard of a 4-track cartridge.

[FrankieT/A]

Originally Posted by 1stgenbird

I grew up in the 8-track era and never heard of a 4-track cartridge.

Oh yeah, the tape looked exactly like an 8-track except scaled down.

[unruhjonny]

Originally Posted by 1stgenbird

I grew up in the 8-track era and never heard of a 4-track cartridge.

how is that even possible?

I grew up in what might be considered the Compact Disc era, even though when I started buying music, it was on Cassette format... and I heard of this!?
I heard of Reel to Reel, but until quite recently I had never seen one in person.

I'm sharing this just for fun;
My first albums I bought (in order; in all bought in while in grade 6) were:
Bon Jovi; Slippery When Wet
Def Leppard; Hysteria
Guns 'N Roses; Appetite for Destruction

The first two were bought a couple years after their initial release;
I remember going all over downtown Winnipeg with my cousin trying to find a copy of 'Slippery When Wet' at a price I could afford - when everyone had 'New Jersey' on sale at a price I could afford...
Earlier that same year I remember being busted by my mom after the fact for sneaking out of the house one day in what might be called "Joe Elliot jeans" (pictured below)
Yet later that year I remember one school yard argument with a classmate;
He insisted the name of the band was 'Paradise City', and wouldn't hear anything to the contrary.



lol

ah, the late 1980's!

/tangent

[TAKerry]

Originally Posted by 1stgenbird

I grew up in the 8-track era and never heard of a 4-track cartridge.

Me too. I thought I was the cats meow when I got a stereo for Christmas that had the ability to record the album onto a blank 8 track! My older brother was an audiophile and had a dynamite setup complete with a very expensive reel to reel. Another brother had a 'best technology' of the day tape player in his truck. It was both 8 track and cassette.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

The only exposure i had to 4-track tapes was about 1970 or 71 when my Dad was loading a big box full of them into his car from my grandparents house - to throw into the dumpster where he worked.

They looked normal to me [like an 8-track best i remember at about 7 y.o.]

Why are they trashing all these ?
Old 4-tracks son, can't play them anymore .

That was the first and last time i ever heard anything about a 4-track tape.
They sure died fast and hard

I ran 8-tracks up through about 81 or 82.
Later in life when i learned Pontiac offered cassette players starting in 1971 or 1972 , i was kind of shocked by that.

[lust4speed]

There were 4-track tapes available that were very large, maybe 6x8 and they would play for 2 hours. You could go to the local Muntz dealer and they would record whatever music you desired on the tapes. I had a really nice (and really large) Craig 4/8 track player that some low life stole out of the GTO in 1970 at the local junior college. He also slit the rubber window seal off the rear quarter window to get to the lock plunger. May he rot in hell...

[bird72]

I do like the analog and the reels, but don't think I'll go back to 8 tracks. 50 year old decks need rehab / rebuilt, no matter the type.

[389]

Those Automatic Radio 8 tracks really sounded nice. I had a few of them. Panasonic really took the 8 track to the top though.. Some of those units from the 80s were spectacular. The speed and size of the tape gave them the ability to reproduce sound decently, better then cassette in my opinion.. I also have an Akai recorder..

[OG68]

I bought my first cassette player in 70 and mounted it under the dash of my 60 Ford. My first tapes were by Carol King, Lee Michaels, Cat Stevens, Led Zeppelin.
During my first Vietnam deployment I had bought a new Sony cassette player that didn't require manually flipping to play the other side. Its almost as big as the laptop I'm typing on. I still have it and may put it into the Goat when the restoration is complete. Like the ads say; "Ran when I parked it 30 years ago" lol

[sdbob]

Still have my Muntz 4 track from 1965. Needs drive belt Also Muntz 4-8 track from 69 era. Plus all the tapes from 60s era. $$$$$