Comments on: Scully kit of the early 1960s

By: William Scully Peggie

William Scully Peggie — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 02:19:20 +0000

My middle name is Scully so very interesting to see this company. Wonder if any relationship

By: Chris Scully

Chris Scully — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 03:19:19 +0000

Hi Chris. I wanted to thank you for the great posts on my family’s legacy in recorded music. I have a 280 a LJ12 and love using them. I am restoring and digitizing the Jerden Music catalog on the 280 which is from 1965 and should provide authentic playback of the original masters. We are also restoring Lathe #13 after having restored Lathe #3 for the BBC America documentary American Epic which you should watch if you have not already. Keep it up. Be safe…Best..Chris Scully

By: gary n. kotch

gary n. kotch — Fri, 24 Nov 2017 21:50:30 +0000

HI:
I Am the owner of a Scully 280-14 and was wondering if You have parts for such a machine.
The unique thing about the unit is its a vertical mount like the 270 Player.

reply when you have time.
gary kotch
gkotch4776@wowway.com

By: Tom Fine

Tom Fine — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:30:49 +0000

I’ve seen a Scully 270 up close and I agree it’s built like a tank. Perhaps not as tank-like as an Ampex 300, but simpler. One of the two things I noticed that I didn’t like was a tiny-diameter capstan and smallish pinch-roller, meaning tape movement was probably not great and wow and flutter were probably somewhat high in real-world broadcast conditions (what? replace that worn out pinch-roller? why? the tape’s still movin’ ain’t it?). The other thing I noticed was that the play electronics cards didn’t attached or sit in a super-secure way. Probably OK except in an earthquake zone, as long as the rack wasn’t moved or jostled. The circuitry and parts count were super-simple, which was really smart and aided in the tank-like MO. If I got one of these today, I’d investigate using a different capstan motor with a much larger-diameter capstan. I’d also re-cap the electronics cards and check to make sure all the transistors and resistors were still at spec values. Because it’s such a simple and direct circuit, you should be able to coax very good playback out of it.

— Tom Fine

By: doubleyou26

doubleyou26 — Wed, 08 May 2013 19:37:47 +0000

I worked for a major radio syndicator back in the mid-70’s. They produced reel tape formats for radio stations. The Scully 270s played back our master tapes when we made the submaster for dubbing purposes (the submasters were recorded on MCI JH-110s).

Built like tanks and the rewind and fast forward was of the same ilk as the Magencord PT-6. Ours were mounted horizontally. Woe to you if you were in wind mode on a vertically mounted 270 and the tape reels were NOT locked down!