Rola MKIII Professional Tape Recorder

[Ozisounds 17]

Hello all,

As Chief Draftsman and designer at Rola Tape Recorder Division, South Melbourne 1959-1962, I started just after Rola bought it from Byer.

I developed the 77 MKIII deck which was quite a challenge to improve on after the previous decks,

like the Original Byer 66 which was already very good. 

The 77MKIII was the last model built. Rola was taken over by Plessey soon after and eventually disappeared as a Co.

My design was well accepted by the broadcast studios, so many were sold, including overseas.

I went on to found 5 companies including 2 factories building automatic packaging machines, which were also exported to Asia and Europe.

Now at 89 years old, retired in Switzerland, these are great memories.

Edited March 25, 2019 by Ozisounds
Minor spelling correction

[Guest Simonon]

I spent hours rebuilding this machine and even found some new old stock heads for it as this one had a hard life with the ABC. A very well designed and beautiful machine that has pride and place in my collection. It is frequently used and shown off to friends. Full track mono at 15ips with the original tubes sounds amazing.

I commend you for your design.

Edited March 29, 2019 by Simonon

[Guest Simonon]

And here is my favorite website for information on Rola and other great Australian made broadcast products. A wealth of information here.

http://www.oneillassociates.com.au/~poneill/Aust_audio.shtml

 

[Guest Simonon]

Hello all,
As Chief Draftsman and designer at Rola Tape Recorder Division, South Melbourne 1959-1962, I started just after Rola bought it from Byer.
I developed the 77 MKIII deck which was quite a challenge to improve on after the previous decks,
like the Original Byer 66 which was already very good. 
The 77MKIII was the last model built. Rola was taken over by Plessey soon after and eventually disappeared as a Co.
My design was well accepted by the broadcast studios, so many were sold, including overseas.
I went on to found 5 companies including 2 factories building automatic packaging machines, which were also exported to Asia and Europe.
Now at 89 years old, retired in Switzerland, these are great memories.

Thought I would upload some pics of my restored 77 mk3. My favorite machine with simply the best tape lacing system. The Rola name is alive and well with an ex ABC audio engineer who builds some great audio, guitar amps and products here at Blackwood in South Australia.

[Guest Simonon]

Here is a picture of the solid diecast chassis which is very heavy.
This was considered to be a "portable machine" in its day.
Currently listening to Freddie King is a Bluesmaster in full track mono.

[VanArn 611]

Simonon you are fortunate to have a later production model of the 77 Mk III, as it is fitted with the Papst outer rotor,  two speed capstan motor.

[Guest Simonon]

Simonon you are fortunate to have a later production model of the 77 Mk III, as it is fitted with the Papst outer rotor,  two speed capstan motor.

I saw a date stamp inside from 1971. Unbelievable production run as they were just so good. Just revised play/ rec azimuth and bias with new heads. The sound quality is very good indeed. The new old stock heads and pinch roller were a great find. Gotta be the easiest machine to align. If I find another Byer or Rola I will definately grab it.

[Guest Simonon]

My unit must be one of the last 77 mk3 units produced and is an ex ABC machine.

[Ozisounds 17]

On ‎30‎/‎03‎/‎2019 at 8:27 AM, Simonon said:

Here is a picture of the solid diecast chassis which is very heavy.
This was considered to be a "portable machine" in its day.
Currently listening to Freddie King is a Bluesmaster in full track mono.

 

[Ozisounds 17]

Yes, a really solid chassis, thanks to Max Byer. For this 77MKIII, I personally designed the rectangular/rounded corner push buttons, which were a signifiant departure from the conventional round ones. The only staff member who criticised them was Graham Thirkell from The Boulevard head office. He was not liked by us at Dorcas St., (Tape Recorder Division) as he interfered a lot with our endeavours. Luckily we succeeded.  

One of the most important improvements we made was to change the design from 1 to a 2 head capping system so that the heads were capped simultaneously and completely with no noise. After many tries, and with the limited space available, we succeeded in doing this, thus reducing hysteresis, noise, hiss etc. The caps of course were made of monel metal.

Below is a cutting of a Melbourne Herald advert from Jan 9, 1964 promoting the MKIII with Qantas Air Cargo.

Edited April 2, 2019 by Ozisounds
Head capping added. Max.1 to 2.Qantas Adv.

[Guest Simonon]

Yes, a really solid chassis, thanks to Mr. Byer. For this 77MKIII, I personally designed the rectangular/rounded corner push buttons, which were a signifiant departure from the conventional round ones. The only staff member who criticised them was Graham Thirkell from The Boulevard head office. He was not liked by us at Dorcas St., (Tape Recorder Division) as he interfered a lot with our endeavours. Luckily we succeeded.  
One of the most important improvements we made was to design the 2 head capping system so that the heads were capped simultaneously and completely with no noise. After many tries, and with the limited space available, we succeeded in doing this, thus reducing hysteresis, noise, hiss etc. The caps of course were made of monel metal.

The tape lacing and head capping system is absolutely brilliant on the mk3 and I can see why many machines remained in service way into the 1980s at many radio stations. I also have a very early mk3 (1963) in need of a lot of attention and parts which is my next challenge. I also restored a set of ABC wharfedale broadcast monitors which contain a set of Centre Industries type 3 tube amps and Rola mid range speakers from 1963. You may remember them as they were built by the Postmaster General department for the ABC and were pretty standard at a number of broadcast sites. A good full track mono recording on a mk3 played through these ABC monitors is something to behold and I feel honoured to be the custodian of these pieces of Aussie ingenuity. The build quality and sound of this early aussie designed broadcast equipment was world class. It really is special to be talking to you as I love the history of Australian broadcasting having worked in the field for many years.

[Zardoz 67]

My grandfather had a manual for a Rola 77 of some description in his collection.  Sadly. I believe he moved the tape machine on (he had a Realistic tape machine at the time of his passing). He had the Plessey service centre details handwritten on the manual.

 

He was a film editor at the ABC so perhaps he acquired it from the station.

[audiofeline 2,380]

The ONeill&Assoc site is the go-to reference site for Australian audio broadcast equipment.

They have manuals and other relevant info. 

 

By the limited info available on the site it is evident that a lot of this history has not been preserved, I would encourage anyone with info not on this site or hifi/vinylengine to send scans so our audio history is not lost.

 

Here is the link to the page on the Rola77MkIII:

http://www.oneillassociates.com.au/~poneill/Rola_77_Mk_III.shtml

 

Edit:  Sadly, the ONeill&Assoc site is dead.  It was a fantastic resource for early Australian professional audio equipment.  I feel that an attempt to preserve some of our very vulnerable audio history has been lost.  The site can be found on the internet wayback machine. 

Edited October 1, 2020 by audiofeline

[timtape 4]

On 26/03/2019 at 12:14 AM, Ozisounds said:

Hello all,

As Chief Draftsman and designer at Rola Tape Recorder Division, South Melbourne 1959-1962, I started just after Rola bought it from Byer.

I developed the 77 MKIII deck which was quite a challenge to improve on after the previous decks,

like the Original Byer 66 which was already very good. 

The 77MKIII was the last model built. Rola was taken over by Plessey soon after and eventually disappeared as a Co.

My design was well accepted by the broadcast studios, so many were sold, including overseas.

I went on to found 5 companies including 2 factories building automatic packaging machines, which were also exported to Asia and Europe.

Now at 89 years old, retired in Switzerland, these are great memories.

Hello John, Good to hear  your involvement with the Byer/Rolas back then.  I remember when they were very common in Australian radio and TV stations. I've been a service tech so have worked on Byers/Rolas over the years. Solidly built, compact, with very good performance. 

[Handmedowns 0]

 Hi guys

I have a stereo Byer 77mk2

I can't find any info on it on the net such as how many were made and who bought them. The schematic in the manual is dated 24/8/62.

My father purchased it from an Adelaide radio station around 1970 and used it for many years before getting his Revox machines.

Late last year I contacted Onielassociatetes and he had never heard of one or seen a manual for one .I sent him photos and a scanned copy of the manual which he was going to put on his website but I have never seen it on there.

Thanks for any help.

[timsky 7]

On 26/03/2019 at 3:14 AM, Ozisounds said:

Hello all,

As Chief Draftsman and designer at Rola Tape Recorder Division, South Melbourne 1959-1962, I started just after Rola bought it from Byer.

I developed the 77 MKIII deck which was quite a challenge to improve on after the previous decks,

like the Original Byer 66 which was already very good. 

The 77MKIII was the last model built. Rola was taken over by Plessey soon after and eventually disappeared as a Co.

My design was well accepted by the broadcast studios, so many were sold, including overseas.

I went on to found 5 companies including 2 factories building automatic packaging machines, which were also exported to Asia and Europe.

Now at 89 years old, retired in Switzerland, these are great memories.

Fantastic to hear this! Well done sir, the machines still look and sound great.

I did a recording session a couple of days ago at Quasar Sound https://quasarsound.com/ and we recorded to a Rola. 

The studios owner Sam, swears by the gear and only had praise for it.

I sincerely hope people can keep these machines going - moving parts need to move, electronics need voltage, they need to be used!

It's quite astonishing to think that we actually made this kind of gear in Australia.

[Anodecap 2]

The Oneill and associates website unfortunately has disappeared. This one is interesting about Rola and when we used to manufacture broadcast equipment in Australia. http://www.aesmelbourne.org.au/thirkell/

[audiofeline 2,380]

On 15/07/2020 at 9:48 PM, Anodecap said:

The Oneill and associates website unfortunately has disappeared. This one is interesting about Rola and when we used to manufacture broadcast equipment in Australia. http://www.aesmelbourne.org.au/thirkell/

The ONeill and Associates website can be accessed from the internet way-back machine (sorry, don't have the link on hand). 

 

The disappearance of this site is a big loss.  Australian audio history is poorly documented, and most of the history is lost.  The ONeill site was a fantastic attempt to document and share this important local heritage. 

[Gary Potts 2]

This is a great site and Im glad I just stumbled on it. Here in New Zealand the Rola Mk's were the de riguer tape machines of the 22 radio studios of the NZ Broadcasting Corporation (NZBC) and later in the television networks established in 1962. 

 

I have a Mk3 in my possession, still in its red wooden portable cabinet. 

 

In tv where I worked in sound for 30 years (and still do a bit of contract sound, all digital of course), the Mk3s were replaced in the mid-80s with Cuemaster version. But this was a clumsy version of the Mk 3 that had an awfully grindy throttle control and slow mechanical response to the fwd and rew functions.

 

I've joined this site and will drop in regularly to read these informative posts. Great to see the history of the classic Rola's presented here and learn of the people behind a most admirable (and great editing) audio tape machine.

Gary Potts, Auckland NZ

[Peter heard 0]

Ola! I have one of these machines and I’m about to fire it up and run it through it’s paces. Apparently the reverse tape function does not work but everything else is mint. I will be selling once I have assesses. If you have interest feel free to contact me 0274313544, cheers, Peter

[The Blues 189]

@Peter heard

It would be a good idea to edit your post and remove your personal phone number.