Technical Details
Brand: Garrard
Model:Bichette
Category:Vintage
Application:Consumer
Electronics:Tube
Country of Manufacture:United Kingdom
Release dates:1959 - 1962
Speeds: 3 3/4
Max Reel Size("): 7"
Number of heads: 2
Head Composition: Permalloy
Head Configuration: Mono - Full Track
Voltage(s): 220-240v
Frequency Response:80 - 10,000 cps
Wow and Flutter:0.2%
Sound quality rating:5 / 10
Long-term reliability rating: 5/ 10
Additional Details
Description
Best known for their record players, the Garrard Engineering and Manufacturing Company of Swindon, also supplied turntable motors for several early UK tape decks, namely Reflectograph, Verdik and Scopetronic. Their two main rivals Collaro and BSR also provided motors for recorders and eventually began manufacturing their own tape decks.
Following BSR and Collaro’s lead, Garrard decided to build their own tape deck too. Their first offering came in 1959 and was a novel magazine-cartridge based deck which could also take standard 4″ reels.
The magazine cartridge (which pre-dated the ‘soon-to-take-the-world-by-storm’ Philips cassette system by several years) held two conventional 4″ spools and simply dropped into place, making tape loading and handling a snap.
Additional Info
Dimensions: 12¼ . x 8 x 3¼ .” (311 x 203 x 83mm) / half-track mono