I agree with Srisaikat, what a wonderful thread. Finally I got some time now, a break at work so I thought I'll write my story. Actually my story goes back quite a bit starting with my father, as I technically did not start off but just continued with what my Dad started.
Dad was born in the late 1930s, and when he was about 3 or 4 years old, his father (my grand dad) brought home a wind-up HMV gramophone. My grandparents started collecting 78s and good old granny used to tell me that Dad would stand by the Gramophone and watch 78 after 78 playing. Later when he was about 10 or 12, a Ferguson valve radio entered our home. Again, as a teenager, Dad would sit and tune stations from all over the place, and catch up with music. My grandparents found this quite a nuisance as they were more interested in listening to the news. When Dad entered his high school, the American Library opened its doors here and they used to lend records and books. Dad became a student member and would borrow records (I think he said 2 per week) and bring them home, keep looking at them for a week and then would simply return them. Of course, these were LPs and he could not play them on the needle wind-up gramophone. When he reached college, he read in a book about a project wherein a guy converted a gramophone to play microgroove records. This was the 1950s. He saved up and bought a mono ceramic cartridge and built a light weight tone arm with a counter balance (later on in life, when he showed it to me, I could not stop laughing but was amazed that such a thing could play a record) and made some adjustments to the governor of the gramophone and thus could play LPs through the radio. This was the first break through with amplified vinyl-based music in our home. He told me that he would have to wind the gramophone after every track on the LP. That could have been quite an experience
Later on, he opened up the radio (much to the annoyance of grandpa), took its speaker out and mounted it in a huge box customized to work like a horn speaker (again a design from an American library magazine). Once he got his job with the Department of Telecom, he was able to quickly save up some money and buy his first record player, the first model of the HMV calypso (with the metal tonearm). Now he could play LPs, 45s and 78s without having to wind
This was the mid 1960s. Friends started coming over to listen. He started buying 45s (LPs were quite expensive in those days) and built up a decent collection. A friend was almost permanently at home recording these on his portable grundig reel recorder. Then in the early 1970s, a major breakthrough. Dad was sent abroad for some Telecom training and he came back with a Garrard SP25 Mk1 deck (it did not have a plinth). Major major upgrade. I would have been 2 years at the time. It had a goldring magnetic cartridge which was later upgraded to Shure M75-6s. A NAD 1020A preamp arrived in the 1980s to replace his DIY phonostage which was started when he bought the Calypso turntable and evolved through the Garrard days into a integrated amp sized cabinet, loaded with components.
to be contd.....
Contd...
Dad now had 2 turntables, he decided to give away the HMV Calypso to his friend. I was very sad about it as honestly, I had been admiring it play ever since I can remember. I tried by best to convince my dad not to part with it and even constant crying for nearly 2 days could stop the Calypso from disappearing from our family. I still feel an element of sadness when I think of that. I may have been about 5 or 6 at the time. (Recently when my wife and I decided to put our Garrard RC210 vintage changer up for sale, my elder son cried for a day, asking me not to sell it. History has come full circle). Now, as time past, we had our usual Saturday and Sunday evening listening sessions which was fun. I was the guy who got to hold the record covers and I even tried to read what was on it. Thats probably my first attempt to read. Dad would give me all the covers, excelt Gil Ventura covers
hyeah: Those familiar with Gil Ventura LPs will know the reason why
hyeah:
In the early 1980s, another incident happened in the family which only increased my love for vinyl. A friend of our family brought a small portable Sanyo record player with a built in radio in a broken state, for dad to fix. After he fixed it, they enquired if we could help them sell it off. They were asking for Rs.100/- for it. Dad obviously did not want to buy it but I was at the back of him to buy it for me. The same family friend has given me a few 45s to play with (my first records, still have them) and I thought I could actually listen to them if I got this record player. Again, 2 days of crying did not help and one of Dad's friends bought the player.
I would have to wait till I reached standard 4 to start off on my own. One day (I think it was Onam time, we were to go out and see the lights across the city), mom took us to Dad's office. He was to join us from there to go out, in the evening. I noticed people sitting by wierd looking machines, taking notes listening to some tuk-tuk sounds. I asked Dad what it was and he told me the whole story behind Morse Code (these were the days of telegrams of course). He told me how in olden times Morse code was used to communicate between ships on the high seas, using beam lights flashing. This facinated me. There was an old bicycle lying in the outhouse and it had a dynamo. My brother and I used to sit on that cycle for hours and pretend we were driving a car. They cycle had a dynamo and a head lamp which we used to turn on and have fun with it. I realized that I could actually build a morse machine if I could have a switch put for the headlamp. Dad gave me some tips on how to build a morse key and in a matter of days, we had one, and then a second. Dad gave us a few spare radio dial lamps and I was able to make a Morse code communicator with 2 stations, complete with key. This contraption was powered by that bicycle dynamo. So one station was fixed on the bicycle and the other station, some distance away, with long wires running from the bicycle to power both stations. My brother would be on the bicycle, peddling away and powering the stations. We learnt to communicate by Morse code. Seeing this, Dad told me to try and build a beeper instead of using lights. This was something new to me as I did not know anything about electronics at the time.
Dad then, over the period of our summer vacation, thought me electronics basics, how to read circuits, how to solder, how to use bread boards, etc. Even thought I was only in Standard 4, I found this very interesting. Then one evening, he took me to a local electronics store and bought some components for the beeper. I still remember it had 2 transistors. He assembled it for me, while I watched. It worked straight away. He then dismantled it and asked me to rebuild it again. I did so with some very shabby soldering. When we turned it on, it did not work. Dad asked me what I thought the problem was. I did not know. He then explained that I had over heated the transistors while soldering and had damaged them. My first experience with soldering was obviously a disaster. In addition to this, I dropped some molten solder on my leg too.
Seeing my enthusiasm, Dad gave me a three band Philips transistor and encouraged me to listen to the radio. He told us about aerials and my brother and I (with brother climbing all the trees) put up an outdoor, long-wire aerial for the radio and we were up and running with Radio Ceylon (SLBC).
Here's a stock picture of that radio:
More pictures can be found here:
philips_l3x25t00
The sound from the radio was hopeless and I always dreamt of having something of a music system for myself. After some convincing, Dad allowed me to start exploring some amplifier circuits. We shortlisted a 1 watt amplifier based on a AC127/AC128 output pair. Dad said that it would be better to use AC187/AC188 instead and finally he actually showed up one evening with a bag of components. A week later I had a working 1 watt amplifier (still have it with me). He gave me the old radio speaker which he had in the horn cabinet and now I could play music loud. It was a great experience, my first little rig. I was nearing the end of Standard 4. I did a demo of my amp at the school exhibition. I was the star there as nobody from standard 1 to 5 had any working models. Just paper and cardboard stuff. I had also built a little circuit for a Traffic light as well. So I had 2 gadgets at the exhibition. The principal of the school told my parents that I should become a scientist at VSSC
hyeah: (later in life, I realized electronics was only a hobby and not a career option for me)
Bringing the clock forward, I listened to this little rig till I reached Standard 8. That's when Dad gave me an old cassette recorder that was lying in the loft. It was not in working condition.
Here's a stock picture of that vintage 1960s recorder which he gave me:
After some fiddling for nearly a year (had to stop for studies in between), I managed to get the tape section to work. With a few old tapes from Dad, I was up an running. I could now listen to music I liked, rather than what was played over the radio. By this time, an Akai GX39D deck arrived in the household so Dad would record a few cassettes for me. Somehow I could never get the radio section to work (but I did not need it as I had a radio anyways and there was no FM station around). I incorporated a small selector switch for me to switch between the radio and tape player without having to plug and un plug. Once I reached standard 10, I built my first stereo amplifier using a TBA 810s platform. I also saved some pocket money and bought more speakers and cross overs, and now I had 2 way speakers for both channels working out of baffles built from apple cartons. I had a Chawla mechanism with a stereo head, driving this amp. Later a friend gave me a Japanese mechanism salvaged from a tape recorder. This was a great step forward. Another friend gave me a Grundig tape recorder for repairs. He left it with us after repairs and now we could record.
Here is a stock pic of that Grundig cassette recorder:
This set up gave me many hours of listening pleasure. Had built up a collection of tapes as well using pocket money. They were mostly from Magnasound and CBS, mainly from the Glam Metal and Thrash Metal Genre. The next step came after I got my first job.
to be continued....
