According to history (and wikipedia), the Gordian Knot is a legend of Phrygian Gordium associated with Alexander the Great.
I remembered the Gordian knot when I opened a box containing a Beocord 1200 (reel to reel) that traveled from Germany to my place, Thessaloniki Greece. Although the seller packed it well, when I opened the box I saw this :
It was a bit of a shock. But I tryed to give a solution.
Alexander the Great would have just cut the tape, as he did with the Gordian knot. But he had the macedonian army with him, so he could act as a "wise guy". On the other hand I was respecting the old tape much more than Alexander respected the knot.
So with a lot of patient I rolled by hand the tape. It took me less than an hour as I tryed hard not to make even the slightest damage to the tape. I didn't knew what was recorded on tape, I didn't even knew if the beocord was working (I bought it from german ebay - the seller was telling it is defected but google translator couldn't make any sence in what exactly was the problem).
Anyway, after about 45 minutes we were on a much better condition :
I gave it a little try and it seems it is working : fast forwarding the tape was working, play was working and connecting the headphones I was able to hear some jazz from the left channel. Rather good for a defective device, isn't it?
Anyway, the lesson of the day : if you are selling or buying a reel to reel machine. wrap the tape to one of the tape holders and use some masking tape to keep it in place.
I will connect it to beomaster 1200 tommorow, and I will put it to test. I will keep you posted. Thanks for your time.
