It was a regular Wednesday morning, and a weekly flea market begun to contour in my small town. You can pretty much find a myriad of stuff here, old and new, from workshop tools to electronics, kitchen apparel to musical instruments, handcrafts and so on, everything you can and you can’t imagine. A particular seller within his generous amount of varied stuff, had this chunky, weird machine laying on the ground being displayed right in front of everything he had for sale.
It has quite an interesting appearance with its prominent front door covering the large aluminum center hub, plenty of connectors, toggle switches and removable modules. Even so, there was hardly anyone taking a close look at this machine, as most people, including myself, had no clues what this was or what it can be used for, let alone if it was functioning. People were taking a glimpse and then keep going their way. It raised some interest so I was inclined to ask about price. As I met this particular seller a few times before, I knew he can give no clues about the machine, put simple it was not his area of expertise from what I knew. Hesitating, I left to keep looking for other stuff around.
Two more hours passed and sellers were about to gather their stuff and go home. I was near to head home too when I got one more time around that seller, and the mysterious machine was still there. I opened the semi-transparent front protective door, took a look inside for a few seconds, closed it back then asked “what is this?”, expecting the non-illuminating silence that followed. It was for me to guess, so I supposed that’s some audio recording gear used in studios, obviously using magnetic reel tapes as the large center hub can reveal. I asked its price and the seller gave it a few seconds though before answering what seemed a bit steep, so I showed very light interest.
As everyone was near to leave the market, he lowered the price a few consecutive times without me even trying hard, on the reason of not wanting to carry that thing again back in his van. Quickly, the price reached a sum I could not refuse, as by a quick math in my head, just the front toggle switches (30 of them) would cover the paid sum while the rest of the machine being a bonus. No risk deal I thought, so I fully paid for it, biked home for the car (while the machine remained with the seller) then got back to load it into the trunk and bring it home.
Two more days passed as I was late with some work, while the machine silently sat next to my office chair, at times placing my coffee or breakfast plate on top of it. Slowly, I begun searching to see what it actually is. Initially I failed to find much information online (typo of the Sangamo – ‘Sangamd’), so I decided to make a Reddit post on a reel to reel subreddit and luckily some users enlightened me. It was then when I became even more enthusiastic about it, and the journey began.
That’s how I got the Sangamo Sabre III, a piece of history of the magnetic tape instrumentation machines, manufactured by the Sangamo Electric Co. of Springfield, Illinois.
Notes: The machine came without: reels, power supply and (presumably) the direct reproduce module board that can fit on the right side, at the bottom.
Next parts:
- Use cases: What the Sangamo Sabre III was used for (guessing hardly anyone using it today as digital recorders are far superior for the job)
- Sourcing the needed parts to make it function.
- Some parameter checks per the maintenance manual.
- First power and functions tests.
- What I’m going to use it for.
- To continue…