Hi Guys,
Let me first say how much I've enjoyed my short time here at Boomboxery.com The quality of the membership here is truly outstanding.
Now we all know we won't meet most of the members here personally but two local members Brian (Terry) and Scotty deserve mention for their generosity.
I remember the first meet I was involved with at Brian's house. I had brought in my entire collection from the car (5 boxes at the time) and then Brian said "Do you need a hand to bring in all the others". "Ah...... no" I said "That's all of them"
After our meet, Brian handed me a very nice freebie Panasonic RX-DT680!
I tried to offer him a trade with one of my boxes but quite rightly, Brian wasn't interested in anything I had!
Now fast forward AMSS search to last weekend, Scotty visited me for a 'tech' session to help restore function to a non-functional Sharp GF-9696 deck. It was awesome fun pulling down a grail box with a fellow boombox fanatic using some newly acquired skills to get another classic back on the road to recovery.
After removing all that sticky black goo and repairing the deck, we then re-installed the assembly. Scotty at this moment was looking a little worried if his 9696 would ever work again when I suggested he take a quick look at the three drive belts that were still sitting beside the box on the work bench! "No worries", I said "We only have to completely disassemble the unit again to refit them"!
Well you should have seen Scotty's face when he heard that mighty 9696 deck fire up for the first time! It sounded perfect with super nice bass and treble response. There was no warble and the tape speed was spot on with the tape speed slider in the mid position. I've got to get me a 9696 one day as they are truly a great sounding box.
Anyway, after working on the GF-9696, Scotty hands me a solid and complete 22W GF-9494 freebie!
View attachment 2249
Although the unit looked to have been 'in storage' for many years, it hadn't been over used or abused so it was a perfect candidate for a rebuild.
I hadn't even turned it on before pulling it down to get that tape deck working again! After going through the same process as the 9696, the tape deck came back to life and sounded pretty darn great!
The tuner knob was super loose though and I suspected something was seriously broken inside. It turns out, somebody had loosened the nut that surrounds the tuner shaft by 3 full turns! Luckily a quick tighten fixed the issue.
I've had the box apart a few more times since fixing various minor issues including an FM stereo problem. To date, all issues on the 9494 have been relatively easy to rectify and thus I'm happy to announce the patient is now well and has resumed full active duties.
The best way I can describe the sound output of this GF-9494 as "Loud and Proud".
No subtleties here folks, just a powerful, 'in your face' wall of sound. 
View attachment 2250
View attachment 2251
View attachment 2252
So in summary, to all members that have helped me out over my time here and especially to Brian and Scotty...
James....
Let me first say how much I've enjoyed my short time here at Boomboxery.com The quality of the membership here is truly outstanding.
Now we all know we won't meet most of the members here personally but two local members Brian (Terry) and Scotty deserve mention for their generosity.
I remember the first meet I was involved with at Brian's house. I had brought in my entire collection from the car (5 boxes at the time) and then Brian said "Do you need a hand to bring in all the others". "Ah...... no" I said "That's all of them"
After our meet, Brian handed me a very nice freebie Panasonic RX-DT680!
I tried to offer him a trade with one of my boxes but quite rightly, Brian wasn't interested in anything I had! Now fast forward AMSS search to last weekend, Scotty visited me for a 'tech' session to help restore function to a non-functional Sharp GF-9696 deck. It was awesome fun pulling down a grail box with a fellow boombox fanatic using some newly acquired skills to get another classic back on the road to recovery.
After removing all that sticky black goo and repairing the deck, we then re-installed the assembly. Scotty at this moment was looking a little worried if his 9696 would ever work again when I suggested he take a quick look at the three drive belts that were still sitting beside the box on the work bench!
"No worries", I said "We only have to completely disassemble the unit again to refit them"! Well you should have seen Scotty's face when he heard that mighty 9696 deck fire up for the first time! It sounded perfect with super nice bass and treble response. There was no warble and the tape speed was spot on with the tape speed slider in the mid position. I've got to get me a 9696 one day as they are truly a great sounding box.
Anyway, after working on the GF-9696, Scotty hands me a solid and complete 22W GF-9494 freebie!
View attachment 2249
Although the unit looked to have been 'in storage' for many years, it hadn't been over used or abused so it was a perfect candidate for a rebuild.
I hadn't even turned it on before pulling it down to get that tape deck working again! After going through the same process as the 9696, the tape deck came back to life and sounded pretty darn great!
The tuner knob was super loose though and I suspected something was seriously broken inside. It turns out, somebody had loosened the nut that surrounds the tuner shaft by 3 full turns! Luckily a quick tighten fixed the issue.
I've had the box apart a few more times since fixing various minor issues including an FM stereo problem. To date, all issues on the 9494 have been relatively easy to rectify and thus I'm happy to announce the patient is now well and has resumed full active duties.
The best way I can describe the sound output of this GF-9494 as "Loud and Proud".
No subtleties here folks, just a powerful, 'in your face' wall of sound. View attachment 2250
View attachment 2251
View attachment 2252
So in summary, to all members that have helped me out over my time here and especially to Brian and Scotty...
James....
.is one of my favorites boxes ,Super Classic Sharp !! congratulations!!!
Australia represents!
