What was your first tape recorder?

[Archae]

I was 8 or 9 years old and had a "Say It Play It."

Used two tape cartridges, one longer than the other.

Had a lot of fun recording myself and my sisters.

https://toytales.ca/say-it-play-it-kenner-1968/

[Sneederbunk]

1. 1962 Sears 5 inch reel to reel. $50

[rsdsharp]

2. Christmas 1968. A little Panasonic cassette deck.

I still have the Cream and Wes Montgomery tapes my brother gave me.

[LogDog75]

3. I had a small reel-to-reel tape recorder

When I was about 12 years old, I convinced my parents to let me by a small, portable tape record which would help me study. It was a cheap little thing but it was fun to play with.

In my early 20s in the 70s, I bought a TEAC reel-to-reel tape recorder. This one was large with view meters to monitor sound levels. I taped a lot of vinyl albums to tape.

[some_of_us_are_sane]

9. Me too!

Reel to reel from Sears. 1968.

[LudwigPastorius]

4. Realistic CTR-11 my dad bought.

This was around 1970, I think.

[LSparkle]

5. Yes!!!! My birthday gift around 1970 from my dad!

What memories that brings back! 😊

[LudwigPastorius]

6. Yeah, hours of entertainment for me and my brother, making silly/stupid recordings.

[AllaN01Bear]

7. i played with my moms portable that she used for dictation and got a full size radio shack boom box.

the deck had an am and fm recivewr with a casset deck. one could record and play. had detachable speakers also had a regular truner and player . gave that a way.

[AllaN01Bear]

8. when mom was teaching kindergarten for glendora ca unified ,

the district introduced tape recorders to the classroom. the csassette tapes were a lot easier for the kids to handle than say records or other media.

[surrealAmerican]

10. I don't remember the brand, ...

... (might have been Panasonic) but it as a typical early 1970's model and I was 12. I got it so that I could practice for my bat mitzvah.

[hunter]

11. My grandfather gave me and my siblings his old "portable" tape recorder...

... that was probably made in the early 'fifties.

The lid folded down and it had a handle like a suitcase.

It weighed about forty pounds, as I recall, and didn't have a single transistor in it. It had a green glowing "magic eye" tube to set the recording level with.

We used to amuse ourselves playing our voices in fast or slow motion.

I remember getting a nasty shock from it while poking around inside it looking for a bad tube while it was powered on.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_eye_tube

[electric_blue68]

12. Fun! We cousins used to borrow our uncle's 3 inch reel to reel to make up stories we'd pass it around or play ...

songs off the radio. One if my uncle's had a 5 inch r 2 r but just at his lounge room.

My first one as mid teen was a Craig Cassette Recorder as a B-Day present 1970, about 9" x 5" in. I snuck it into The Metropolitan Opera House when The Who played Tommy. A few other of their later shows, too.

Them an AIWA "walkman" cassette play/record. I was always buying blank cassettes!
Snuck into more concerts of other groups! 😄

GOOD times!!!

[ProfessorGAC]

13. A VERY Early Akai

My uncle ran a news agency. They had a paper carrier contest. Since he personally took the papers to the train stations & convenience stores near them, he got points, too.
It was around '66, because I think I was 10 years old.
He gave me the prize catalog and said pick out whatever I wanted for the X points he had. (They didn't have kids yet.)
The tape recorded was something like 10 fewer points than he had, so it was the best thing they had I could get for free.
Had little (3.75"?) reels.
Nobody had ever heard of Akai then. It was just a made in Japan product, but was very good quality.
I used it to record myself playing piano.

[Emile]

14. Back in the early 60's dad had a reel to reel that

he would record himself playing the accordion.