Replicas

[ejemmons]

Absolutely awesome machine work! Hats off, Gentlemen!

[ROLANDJAYS]

Now ready for testing.

[recordboy]

How exciting!!!

What fantastic workmanship...

Any development updates?

[ROLANDJAYS]

yes I tested a fully assembled head and it was lacking some bass so I am re making the armature.
other than that it works great .

[emorritt]

Does your head require the silicon fluid like the originals? I notice that mine sounds funky until you put the fluid in before each use.

[ROLANDJAYS]

of course you need the fluid.

[Stevie342000]

Thanks for the link from the Grampian C head for sale on a well known auction site in Classifieds section.

This leaves me with a number of questions:

When will they be available?
What cost are we looking at for either Audax or Grampian head?
Have you tested them against originals to see how they compare and behave?
If they are to be available to all worldwide have you factored in Customs charges when setting a selling price?
If they are not at a competitive price in comparison to an original how many do you expect to sell, in other words the price has to be affordable and realistic?
What is the lead time?
How many can you make a week or per month?
What do you anticipate demand to be?
What payment methods are available (personally I prefer Paypal as it offers a degree of protection to both parties)?

[studiorp]

Hey Rolandjays, can you post here a sample, so we all can hear your sound results ? Is possible ?

[ROLANDJAYS]

ok a lot of questions here.
things are taking longer than usual as always.....

the Grampian heads will be the first to get sold, then audax later
the Grampian head has been tested, it met original specifications
for the overseas buyers, customs charges will be done on a case by case basis
the price will be 1000$ per head
I have 3 heads being prepared for sale, I can make more if they sell out.
we can use paypal , paper check , cash ect.....
I can make 20 heads in 1 month if needed. but I don't think ill sell more than 5 in 1 month.

there will be a sample sound bite. possibly a video.
ok thank you all for your interest.

[Stevie342000]

Not a bad price considering for the Grampian, of course we would all prefer it to be lower but given that it is a feedback head and it was never cheap to make in the first place.

The design itself should allow each head to be within a tolerance for manufacturing ensuring similar results from sample to sample. The trouble with early heads (read Voigt) was that there was a manufacturing tolerance that did not allow you to change head should something bad occur without changing other passive parts to get a similar level frequency response - hence why Blumlein was asked by EMI in the UK to circumvent the Bell (Westrex) patents and to get around that very issue.

The Audax heads would of course be cheaper?

Are you making replicas of Presto 1-C and 1-D? Or is that someone else, I would imagine they would be sold for a lesser amount as well? It would be good to have a few options.

These things always take longer than we anticipate but excellent work none the less.

[studiorp]

News Rolandjays ?

In the next future, you will copy a stereo head ?

[ROLANDJAYS]

At the moment I am making the electronic connections at the top of the Grampian. It's getting there.

A stereo head is already in the works. I just picked one up at the beginning of the year.
But it's going to be a fair amount of money.

[opcode66]

I wish you luck. Stereo is a lot more complicated than mono. Very little will carryover from the one to the other. Why not make my metal parts for Bladerunner?

Also this thread probably should reside in the experimenters section. Moderator?

[subkontrabob]

I wish you luck. Stereo is a lot more complicated than mono. Very little will carryover from the one to the other. Why not make my metal parts for Bladerunner?

Also this thread probably should reside in the experimenters section. Moderator?

agreed, this is not the right place for this fantastic thread!

[Steve E.]

This thread inspired me to change the name of the experimenters' section to "Experimenters and Innovators." Moving forward, this sort of thing belongs there. Fabulous work!!!

[ROLANDJAYS]

So I'm just about done with all the parts.
here are some pictures of the stylus screw holder and terminal block.
I'm sending one head to be tested this week.
I'll post some results.

[Sillitoe]

Very cool! Can't wait to hear it.

[uvoscillator]

applause !

[dimi751]

Nice job just to ask will you make a stereo head later stages

[ROLANDJAYS]

well about the stereo head.... im going to start making some parts for them first . if they work , then I will try a whole head.
but don't get excited yet. that a long ways away.