Cute Little Reel To Reel I Found In An Army Surplus Store : Shinagawa SSS-501

In this video I take a look at a very unusual and very cool little reel to reel tape recorder from the 1960’s. This was manufactured by a company in Japan called Shinagawa. From what I have read, this recorder was very popular, and many units were sold back in the day. I found mine in a local army surplus store, for the grand price of $! I was very happy to get it. I was even more happy when I brought it home and discovered that it was still functioning. As you will see, the take up spool that came with this little machine is actually a spool for Super 8 movie film. But it also works as a take up spool for a three inch reel of tape. I only have a couple of 3 inch reels of tape in my collection. I play a piece from one of them in this video. Of course, this thing has seen better days. One of the buttons is missing. The dust cover is cracked and has come off its hinges. The lettering that used to be above the buttons has rubbed off. Also, this thing came with a microphone, but I am 99% sure this is not the microphone that originally came with this recorder. The 3 inch reel of tape was used a lot back in the 60s and 70s for telephone answering machines. Of course, many of us have also seen recorders like this in old TV shows, especially shows or movies that had spies in them. “This message will self-destruct in 5 seconds“. This would have been a great recorder back in the day to use for voice recordings, or for taping songs off of the radio. This sort of thing would have been very popular right before shoebox tape recorders really took off in popularity. This thing is super light, and back in the day it was probably highly popular due to its portability. I am sure many bands also used this back in those days to record their bands jamming in the garage. Have you ever owned this recorder? Do you own any products by Shinagawa? What do you think of them? Are you a reel to reel enthusiast? Do you still record with reel to reel? Feel free to leave a comment! On this channel I feature videos relating to retro tech and vintage tech. I post videos about cassettes, vinyl, CDs, reel to reel, laser disc, DVDs, home recording gear, home studio gear, old cameras, mixers, microphones, synthesizers, drum machines, video games and so much more. If this is your thing, please subscribe!