Spectreman

Nice reels, but you might want to get a 5 inch take up reel too so you can close the cover if you want.

Yes, the film take up reel is a definite no go, especially if the reel is made of steel, which it not good to use with magnetic tapes.

Yep, that cable should do it.  The sound quality of the Nagra III is pretty good, considering its age.

Great looking Tascam 48 !  Very happy with my 42 deck, but it did need a lot of cleaning & maintenance to get working correctly, and a new capstan motor that had worn bearings.  Lucky I got it off a friend for pretty cheap. I use it a lot for recording & playback.

Very nice looking digital decks there, dela.

I know the Nagra D, but the other two I am not familiar with.

The only digital unit I have is a Mix Pre 3.

Cool.  Pioneer gear is very nice.

But my main tape deck is actually a Tascam 42 2-track, this is bigger & a lot heavier than the Pioneer deck !

I have a Nagra III and Nagra E also, but the Nagra III still has a few issues...

Wow, fantastic collection there, Dela !  Like the cat too !

Gustavo, you have a terrific Pioneer setup there too ! 

I have the Pioneer RT-1050 2 track deck myself, it works very well. 

Fair enough question. I would love a Nagra IV-S, but they are just too expensive now !  Don't worry, I do have other great stereo decks, a Tascam 42 and a Pioneer RT-1050.  Also, I happen to be deaf in one ear, from when I was very young, so I cannot properly hear stereo anyway, especially with headphones, so a mono machine suits me just fine !  The Tandberg 11 cost me $100 AUD, by the way.

Cheers, Chris.

My Nagra E is still working fine, it just needed some basic maintenance. I bought a counter roller for it too.

Also, Jay above mentions the Tandberg 11 portable deck, I now have one of these in excellent condition, working very well. It sure is well made, definitely more solid overall than any Uher deck I had (the Uher decks are all gone now !).

Cheers, Chris.

Damn, a Nagra IV-S is for sale locally here in Australia for a very good price. Wish I had the money right now for it, cheapest one I have seen so far.....

Bad timing for me, would have enough money in a few months time, but will be long gone by then of course, damn....

Yes, a lot of the Nagra decks are very expensive indeed on Ebay.

Very glad I bought my Nagra E & Nagra III for $300 AUD each, but the Nagra III did need a bit of restoration work done on it.

My favourite portable reel to reel decks for sure...

Yes, this was my thought about cleaning it too.

I have tried using a small amount of creme cleaner on a rag, it works fine on the top plate, the black pen marks are totally gone now. Just need to do the rest of the top plate now, will take some time... 

Hi.  The top plate of my Nagra III is pretty dirty with grime from lots of use.  Plus there is some black pen writing that has been partly cleaned off.

Can someone recommend what type of cleaning agent or material to use to get it nice and clean again ?

I don't want to disassemble the unit to be doing this either...

Thanks, Chris.

I do love my two Nagra decks, use them a fair bit for music mix tapes.

But my Sound Devices MixPre 3 is certainly better suited for my field recording activities, much easier to upload recordings onto the web, and the sound quality is fantastic. 

Hi guys. I finally got my Nagra III (the one with the deleted serial no) working ok ! 

Really pleased, did not waste my money after all. It plays back fine, have not tried recording yet, really only interested in playing tapes on it anyway.

Unfortunately, the internal speaker is stuffed, the cone is totally destroyed, no idea how this could have happened, as if someone has deliberately wrecked it ! So will need a new speaker at some stage.

Now running it in more, these old decks improve after awhile of running I find.

The caps in it need to be regenerated, ha !

I will post another better photo in the morning, is kind of late here now....

Thanks Mr Bond for the comments.

I have made some progress, so there could be hope for it yet !

The battery contacts have cleaned up ok.

But more importantly, I have fixed the capstan bearing. The steel bushing had been pushed up and half out of place from the aluminium holding bracket on the top plate, this of course is what broke the plastic piece on top. I have pushed it back into place, and all seems good for the capstan now. Next to fix the disconnected wires & test the electronics....

Cheers, Chris.

Hi all.

Just bought a Nagra III for a reasonable price, so I have two Nagra decks now !

However, it needs some work to be operational again...

The main issue is the top capstan bearing plate (the plastic part) is broken, half is missing, so the capstan will not run correctly at all.

I might try making up a replacement plate for this. Does anyone have a nice close up top view photo of this piece they could share with me ?

Also, the motor leads and the Modulometer leads have been disconnected, someone has been trying to fix it previously...

I will try & get the electronics/audio section working first, after fixing the damaged from corrosion battery contacts in the battery compartment.

Yes, it does have several issues !!  It would make a good parts unit if I really get stuck. At least it appears no other parts are missing.

Pity it has no serial number, someone has erased this from the front panel, scratched out !

Cheers, Chris.

Hi all.

Just bought a MixPre 3 unit, my first digital audio recording device ! 

It is pretty small alright, much smaller & lighter than my Uher & Nagra analogue decks !

Will be testing it out a lot this coming weekend...

Cheers, Chris.

Yes, I love it Mark !  The 5 inch reels don't last long enough though ! 

But I can rewind the reel while at a stop light, then start again.  

Impressed with the battery performance so far, still using the same set of cells many hours later.

Hi Guys.

As Mark said, this is very interesting historical info, thanks for sharing !

I still love using my Nagra E. I have added a QTIM timer roller to mine now which is quite handy, and pretty accurate.

I sometimes play it in the car, through the car sound system, is wonderful !

Tension roller problem fixed !

I first tried adjusting the tension of the return spring (very nice screw mechanism to do this, by the way), this helped a bit, but not enough. 

So I returned the tension adjustment to its original position, then added a very small amount of oil on to the brake drum itself, but not directly on the felt pad.

This fixed the problem. Now, at the end part of a tape, the left roller starts to oscillate a few times, then quickly stabilizes, after stopping then starting again.

Much happier now ! 

Cheers, Chris.

Thanks for the reply, Dela.  I might try doing as you suggest.

I now have the service manual for the 4.2, it seems to be pretty much identical as far as the mechanical side of things go.

I will check the left reel brake pad material, and perhaps put a very small drop of grease on it as the manual suggests.

Thanks very much for the info, David & Dela !

Yes, the oscillating roller can be steadied ok with my finger.

I did not realize that this was a common issue with the Nagra decks. 

I will perhaps try adjusting the roller tension a bit with the adjustable screw on the arm. I guess if you removed the small return spring ( not the main tension spring ) that is attached to the left roller arm, this would stop the oscillation from happening ?  But then what would be the side affect from doing this ? 

Cheers, Chris.

Hi again. 

Dela, the service manual is great, but unfortunately it does not cover any of the mechanical adjustments to the unit.

I would like to know about the mechanical adjustments now, because there is a slight problem with the left tension roller, with excessive wobble sometimes.

Is only a problem when there is a small amount of tape left on the supply reel, and the unit is stopped, then started again. The left roller keeps oscillating continuously unless I put my finger on it to stabilize it. If the tape is continuously played without stopping, there is no problem. 

Any ideas how to fix this ?  Would really prefer to fix this myself if possible, I am technically minded.

Thanks, Chris.

Dela, thanks so much for the service manual, just what I needed !

I have done 2 music mix tapes on the Nagra E now.

This is a great thread, the most info I have found about Nagra decks on the one forum. 

Ha, cool about the UHER ad !  I should perhaps update it to a Nagra one now..

Yes, I know the E stands for Economy. I think it was nearly half the price of a regular 4.2 model, but still pretty expensive, certainly not a consumer level item. Nagra never made any cheap decks !

The tool kit is missing, I think they are quite often missing in these decks.

I forgot to mention, the deck came with a tape on it, with what I presume is a radio interview, probably the last one it was used for. But is from an Israeli radio station, so is in Jewish, I cannot understand it !  There are various sections of tape spliced together. I will keep it in my collection. 

By the way, does anyone have a user manual in English for the Nagra E ?

I can only find a German copy. I would like to know all about the various internal link settings on the main PCB inside. 

Hi. Really liking my Nagra E. Have only done a few test recordings with it yet, and it sounds great. The tape transport on these machines is superb. 

The serial number is 0202200. Any idea how many Nagra E models were made ?

I have attached a carry strap to it, a standard guitar shoulder strap works perfectly.

I have been testing it with a Rode NTG4+ mic.