8-Track - Big in Japan?
I quite like this one - it’s simple and fun with a nice colourful thumbnail. A bit of chat, a bit of a demo. Overall it’s thirty odd minutes of innocuousness.
Here it is - https://youtu.be/pkmbnkp3JUE
I don’t really have much to add this week - it’s been quite warm here which has made shooting indoor scenes with all the studio lights a bit uncomfortable.
It might be nice to take a couple of days away from the computer screen and perhaps sit in the garden for a while.
When I have enough new things to talk about, I’ll shoot the next Patreon update video. At the moment what you’ve been seeing on screen each week is pretty much everything of note that I’ve been getting up to besides everyday chores.
Anyway, until next time, take care and as always thank you all for all your support.
Comments (69)
Thank you Mat for the 8 track link!!
The Ford wow and flutter advisement + slow Rocky music at the end is amusing. An excellent decision to make that edit. 👍🏻
I left it stewing in an unpublished state for the best part of a week just in case a late content match appeared…but so far so good.
Loved the video, trip down memory lane. We had a ‘75 olds with an 8 track player, my parents also bought an 8 track player, recorder that was connected to their console stereo. As the Oldsmobile aged, we added a cassette adapter that was always problematic. The adapter would never come out of the player so we kept a butter knife in the car to aid in taking it out, safety first!
Don't suppose you have a digital file of the Ford 8-track instructional tape you could share please? I hate to ask and be one of 'those people', but it would be great to sample Edit/reply. Thank you so much - you're the best!
I’ll sort something out this weekend.
In the mid 1970s a schoolfriend had a car 8 track in his bedroom. His Father, who was into American cars, had swapped it for a cassette player in one. Yes most of the cartridges he had were Country and Western. The other place where 8 tracks were almost a standard fit were 1970s coaches. I went to school by coach so saw a lot of them. They typically had a Radiomobile set-up with separate radio, 8 track, and some kind of mixer amp. Loads of room for that on a coach and expense would be less of a worry.
...And, of course, there was Columbia House. :-)
Those machines will soon be shown on the end credits, am I right?
Probably not because they don’t have any visible moving parts, but they will be on the shelves at the back.
8-Tracks have always fascinated me, something of a relic from just when I was born. They're still quite collectable in some circles, I've had a few UK friends ask me to mail them from here in the USA too where it's easier to find them.
Mat, it's a small world. I was playing this video when I got a visitor. Our Japanese neighbour said she had one of those as a child.
I wonder if they can sing 'Hanamachi's Mother'
Having seen Maynard Ferguson live once (back in 1995) playing the Rocky theme, it sounded like he wasn't feeling well the day this was recorded 😂 thanks for the laugh was much needed lately
Wow! Great deal. And they look so amazing as a set. Enjoy!
Absolutely loved this video! I was 11 years old when these came out and I really wanted one as they were so beautiful in the primary colors. Alas, it was not to be, so it's a thrill to watch you open these and witness them running well out of the box (with original batteries no less). Fascinating to learn about the Karaoke functionality. Curious how much they set you back!
The yellow was 20,000 yen and the red was 22,000 yen (approx).
Another new Lav mic Mat? I noticed when you started having it face up instead of down and now looks like a new one again! Maybe in your monthly update you can share some insider knowledge or tricks you've encountered :)
I’ve been using this one for a bit…but during recording the top got pulled off and I can find it anywhere. I’ve just received a pack of replacements today.
I think an important part of why 8-tracks were more popular in the USA was that everything here is crazy far apart. I've driven Phoenix-Los Angeles and vice-versa many times and that's a 6 hour (or so) drive, a big part of which is in the middle of the desert, where you can't get any decent music stations on the radio (except maybe at night on AM, back then. Nowadays AM is even worse: most of AM is right-wing political propaganda and religious talk)
The other things 8 track players were great for while (I know this was sort of touched on - but worth mentioning again): No flipping it over. Just leave it on until you realize it's the 3rd time around. Also, 8 track tape decks didn't seem to eat tapes the way cassette players did.
Those National batteries remind me of an ad from the '80s with the toy fireman climbing a really long ladder (supposedly up a 30 storey building).
They certainly don't make batteries like they used to. I recently opened a new old stock item that was only about ten years old, and the best before 2018 Duracell batteries had literally disintegrated with the wrappers and ends falling off.
I’m delighted to see that the loading slot for the cartridge has been clearly labeled and identified, to avoid any confusion. Of course, the user is still forced to work out on their own whether the cart goes in skinny-side or long-side first. Perhaps that’s why these things didn’t really sell?
Just a quick question for the combined hive mind of the Techmoan massive. I have noticed that new batteries, especially D cells, are really hard to fit into pretty much most of my portable vintage tech. I know battery design has changed over the past 40 years or so, i even occasionally have the same issue with AA size batteries. Anyone else noticed this ?
I ran into this issue with the Barclaytophone https://youtu.be/ExKj1vS6FVc?t=523 - but I found that even old batteries didn’t fit it either (perhaps they’d swollen up) - but I’m still confused as to what’s going on.
As a small child in the 80's, every elderly person I knew drove a big Buick with an 8-track. And some of those cars made it to the 90s. I never really understood 8-track though. My father adopted the compact cassette in the late 60s and dubbed his vinyl to it for use in the car. So he/we skipped it entirely.
National/Panasonic made a bunch of great consumer players like this...hardware that was colorful and joyous and worthy of display long after they became obsolete and broke down. I have almost the complete range of the cassette players they made...the ones that came in a range of colors and were shaped like puffy boxes. It's a pity that more manufacturers didn't go that direction.
It’s a shame all the radios from the same range were AM only. If I’m ‘lucky’ on a ‘good’ day on AM all I can faintly pick up is someone mumbling about Cricket in between bouts of static and what sounds like a ZX Spectrum loading Jet Set Willy.
That is so impressive that you were able to run that thing first try, out of the box, with a set of original batteries. I did have a laugh thinking that (until you found the final working one) you could have had an excuse to set a record for the most egregious breaking of the “mixing of new and old batteries” warning and actually have it power something.
Great video (I love japan!) Now is the time to relax in the garden and think about nothing. It takes, also, to recharge the mind, and the imagination.
Great video as ever.. Keep them coming. Thanks!
I remember seeing the ads for those...and a kid I knew got one when we were in the 7th or 8th grade...I wanted 8-tracks just because I wanted the player...alas I never got one...nor 8 tracks...
Talking about big American cars being able to hold an 8-track, I remember in 1977, my girlfriend's old Chevy Vega had one. But my neighbor had better technology. He mounted a reel-to-reel player in his 1967 Dodge Challenger! It was attached to two floor-to-roof rails just behind the front seats. My current car doesn't even have a CD player--it can play USB sticks, stream Bluetooth, or use Android Auto/CarPlay.
There is a video somewhere on YouTube of a Cadillac (I think) with the 21 cassette Panasonic carousel cassette deck in the trunk.
This video brought back a memory - Back in my early teen years in the mid 80s a friend of mine started collecting 8 track tapes since she could get them for cheap from thrift stores. It ended up influencing her music taste and she got really into Elvis and Barry Manilow. Because of that she gave me some of her cassettes that she didn't like or want anymore, including a Genesis album (Three Sides Live) which subsequently got me very into Genesis. I foolishly got rid of my cassette collection several years ago, but couldn't part with that one, it sits on a shelf in my office. - The sight of the Invisible Touch 8 Track in the video made me laugh and think of that.
I remember these from Back In The Day very clearly ... plus, you did a previous show on them. :-) Panasonic had a number of this style music player, each in multiple colors - several were radios only but at least on Compact Cassette player (I feel compelled to use the full name these days ...). One thing I noticed when you had the units open - the wheel that does the "digital display" has *8* positions instead of 4. It's just 1 through 4 repeated twice. This makes me wonder if, for the Karaoke market, there was an actual 8-track version that did the tracks separately? These were mono machines after all, so it would just mean (probably) a different play head.
The RQ8 is the only model sold in Japan, I've been looking into these for a few years, when it comes to 8-track Karaoke this one is really more of a novelty than anything else. For serious 8 track 8-track you'd be using one of those big ol pro-type machines with all the echo knobs etc. The US model of this has 8-positions on the dial too, I presumed it just makes the mech simpler as it only has to move the disc a small distance each time the digit changes.
NHK, the Japanese state broadcaster and their equivalent of the BBC, recently made an (English language) program about the return of analogue audio, and in it they visit a store which is selling, amongst other things, refurbished versions of the National 8-track players in your thumbnail. You can watch the program here: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/3004882/
Thanks for the link - that was a nice watch.
Not really related to the video, but I had something I wanted to mention about cassettes. I keep hearing people saying that "cassettes will never make a comeback." But I had an interesting experience at a convention in Austin a couple of weeks ago. For the first time at a convention I had soundtracks for "Petscii Robots" available in both cassette and vinyl. And I sold double the number of cassettes that I did vinyl. Granted, the price wasn't the same. $20 for a cassette and $25 for vinyl. But when I asked people why they picked the cassette they never said it was price, but rather the fact they didn't own a record player.
If I were passing by I'd have picked up a cassette too - purely for the practical reason that it would fit in a pocket or bag a lot more easily than the LP. That may play some part in it. I can also appreciate though that the lack of a record player would be a bit of a barrier. I'm glad though to hear that the people weren't just using Crosley suitcase players ...you must have a more sensible following.
By the way is it just me or does the thumbnail make anyone else think of Star Trek (TOS).
Don't let on that the red one's probably not coming back.
"Just stream music..."😉 Very much nostalgia in this one for me as my parents got me the yellow model for Christmas in 1975. I never had many tapes, but did do the Columbia House thing for a short time. By 1982 the machine stopped working and was tossed in the trash. Kinda wish I still had it now though I may have one 8-Track tape leftover from those days.
Loved this video! I’ve thought about getting some vintage audio equipment from Japan before but had always been worried about having to service it. Very cool either way though!
I just had the idea that I should do a re-edit and have the terrible Rocky theme rendition play over the credits instead of the usual tune. I've done the edit, fixed a couple of minor glitches while I was there and it's processing now, but I'm going to hold it back until the release date next week...I'm doing an experiment regarding how YouTube reacts to unwatched vs watched videos being made public. I'll explain more next update. But I just wanted to mention this here as any comments on this version on YouTube will only be read by other patrons - not the YouTube massive.
Good idea!
Next up on Batterymoan...
From the volts.
Fantastic video for a Sunday morning -- thanks. I used to do construction with a friend of mine in the late 80s/early 90s, and he had a Ford pickup with a working 8-track in it that he used into the 90's. Still remember the Bowie/Traffic/Boston carts omnipresent on the floor and falling out of the glove box...
Although I am one of the crowd that groans a bit about 8-track, I enjoyed this video a lot. Being from the US, this (and your prior videos of the format products) opens up a wider understanding of the usefulness of 8-track. I did not know about its international influence. Watching you unbox NOS items is great - I love the ephemeral things, pamphlets, that more than likely would have gone to the landfill these days. That red machine is around six months younger than me - I'm glad to see that it, and some similarly-aged batteries, are still running strong. The information about karaoke explains in part why 8-track was still appearing in National products in 1985 (your VHD video of their product line: https://youtu.be/NzN4S1uLiPA&t=30m09s ). I expect the audio from that Ford cart will be recycled by musicians in some form or another. Take care, my friend.
This was the one where I realised I didn't have a career in live narration.
A fun video for a hot Sunday. Thanks, Mat.
Yes it’s a bit much innit. Back to normal though tomorrow.
Brilliant video. It has it all. Documentary at the start, unboxing, test, teardown, and repair. It even has a battery bit in the middle. I'm fascinated by batteries, and it was great to see it running on original batteries, it seems 'complete' that way. Time to get out of bed now. I'll feel very 8-track Rocky until I've had a coffee or two.
Gonna fly now...
i have a yellow one that i have refurbished. It is a job that you will have to do at some point if you intend to use it,fortunately its not quite as difficult as you may think, but is well worth the effort. did you know that Panasonic had different names for the 3 main coloured ones? The colours where, Detonator red, bomb blue and explosion yellow !! They should do a limitted edition 21st century collectors special and name it thermo nuclear blinding white!!!!
Hi Mat. When it comes to Matsushita/Panasonic/Technics serial numbers, the first digit usually indicates the year and the next digit indicates the month. For example, your yellow 8-track player is KD848385 — that would be April of 1978. The red one is KG8I7866 and that would be September of 1978. The date on the motor does not always match the manufacturing date of the device, e.g. I have a Technics turntable made in July 1985, but the sticker on the motor says "17 April 1985". --Kind regards, Pavel
Thanks for the information - but I'm missing something. How does KG81 translate to September 1978 - I get that the 8 is 78...but where's the September indicator. .
Great video, Mat. You would have been a very good teacher, the way you explain the different reasons why the 8-track was popular in the U.S. and in Japan, but never really took off in the U.K. We could all tell everybody we know, now and show off how clever we are. Thank you and enjoy your quiet moment in the garden.
A cool obscure format, that besides it wasn't that good still managed to get some success, and that combined with a funny design for a player, what else could you want from a Techmoan movie? Take your rest, here it is hot too, longing for some rain and colder weather... BTW: I bought something in Japan too for the first time, a Yamaha DX7 synthesizer, let's see if it arrives all right here, in that case I might consider ordering more stuff on Ebay there (Roland D-50, Korg M1...)
The P&P costs are the biggest hurdle to most Japanese orders - but after that I’ve not experienced the issues I can get with stuff from the US.
Great video, Mat. Classic Techmoan. Loved the sad Rocky music - sounds like the theme tune to someone having a really bad day.
That was my favourite thing about this too - a very fortuitous occurrence.
Was the red player maybe a return rather than brand new? Couldn't help but notice it didn't have the plastic wrapping and the tag which the yellow one has, which would explain the scratchy pot as a result of being exposed to everything the atmosphere had to offer. Love the ad saying "it looks like a detonator" - can't help but think that a bunch of kids dancing around with a thing that looked like a detonator in 2022 would get a very different response... Have a good week, Mat. Take it easy.
It's possible the red one was used once or twice and then put back in the box. The owner might have kept the cart to use on a different machine instead.
I don't think I've laughed as hard as I did at "come on Rocky, you can do it!" and that warbly, very uninspiring theme tune in a long time!
I can imagine that audio being borrowed from the video and used to accompany montages of exercise fails.