Redacted, moderator please remove
My only experience with reel-to-reel was while recording Body Cargo's "Logistics Of Religion". First impressions was really nice, in respect of the process - it looked way easier then tape.
That record came out the way I wanted it to be, but when I later returned to recording new material on reels it felt that compression is nice, but quality is...to high for me. So I have returned to casual tape as I am an addict of lo-fi soundscapes. So I assume that it is fully choice of an ear.
I used to be really into open reel tape machines. I dont know about now. But you used to be able to pick them up for nothing used. I found that I tend to prefer the older 'transistor' models kind of like what you have there, to the later 'hifi' models. The old ones will not only be lower fidelity for a lot of boring technical reasons, but also get much more interesting as you abuse the gain on them.
The more modern hifi models just eventually turn into white noise as you keep cranking it up.
The older models get that fun exploding unfolding distortion that is just unreproducable by any other means.
I'm curious when that guy was made and if it actually works.
I know that early Japanese transistor production was pretty hit or miss. They had problems getting better than 5% yield. And that looks old enough to date to that period of time.
Looks like it has a 1/4" jack or maybe it is a 7mm jack?
I've owned a few old Sony and Wollensak open reel units that had something other than exactly 1/4" jacks.
Either way it might sound cool to pummel the 1/4" mic preamp jack with line level.
"4 transistor" gotta love it.
I am running a Tandberg reel to reel on selected recordings. Works on some ideas, but not all. Mainly, because of the tape hiss one gets by recording on these beasts. First of... clean the recording/play/erase heads. Mastering can be done if you have a stereo unit as well. For recording I would suggest to route your signal via the deck to a station of choice, as timing / editing down the recorded material takes some time to get the synch right. Also, tape splicing is fun, so check for scalpes and splice track( don't remember what's it called it English). Reel efx are also fun to do. Check the web for more info.