Stuff That Works and Lasts Nearly Forever

[MikeRivers]

In like with the stereo receiver thread here, but not to hijack it, just the other day the pocket calculator that I've had on my desk at home for a very long time has finally failed. The two right hand segments of the third digit from the right hand end have failed. No amount of poking, prodding, or twisting will bring them back. This is a Casio FX-811 solor powered scientific (trig and log functions, no graphics) calculator that, for many years, was my "travel" calculator. Thinking back to some of the places where I ckearkt remember using it, it's close to 35 years old. More than once I questioned my wisdom of traveling with a solar-only powered calculator, like when I tried to tally up my expenses for the day in a restaurant that was too dark to power the device, I never had to replace a battery. I can't remember how much it cost, probably around $15 1979 dollars. I have a few others around here with about the same feature set that cost between $5 and $10. I'll probalby get another one like that to replace it.

I also have my first pocket calculator, a Huwlett Packard HP-55. I bought it when it was on sale for $89, around 1976, and it still works, too. It was probably around 1972 when my friendly local Hewlett Packard sales rep (back when I used to have one of those) came to my office and showed me the HP-35, their first pocket calculator. It cost $395. I told him I'd buy one for myself when they got below $100.

Oh, and the Mitsubishi stereo receiver that I bought in about 1972 is still powering the Bozak speakers from about the same period that are in my living room. I can't replace them with anything newer, smaller, and better sounding because then I would have to put up some more shelves to hold the stuff that's on top of the speaker cabinets.

Time to put the ham in the oven for Thanksgiving dinner. That's something else that lasts forever.

[sailorman]

My 97 year old Dad still uses the Texas Instruments calculator he bought me when I started college in 1970. Was $100 bucks, which was a lot of money at the time;   well worth it for math challenged me.

I still use my '71 Thorens turntable (with the original belt no less), Teac 3300 and 3440 tape decks, and the Dynaco ST150 amp and Hafler preamp I built in the mid-70s/early 80s from kits;  and my Polk Model 10s from around 79.   Nothing I've purchased since has lasted nearly as long.   

Of course my '71 Strat is still going strong, not to mention my 65 Fender Deluxe and Super Reverb amps.   I'd figure a new guitar would last that long, but not sure of the current amps.

Last winter I rewired a post WWII Westinghouse fan for my Dad.   It makes a soft hum that I remember distinctly as a small child, and still operates perfectly.   As does the upright vacuum cleaner that was HIS mother's.   Probably came over on the Mayflower.   It will suck the nails out of a hardwood floor, though I'd not like to try to take it upstairs.  It would be nice to be able to purchase things that would have similar lifespans.   My family was far from well to do, so those were not high end, expensive items.   They were just built to last a long time.

On the other hand, some things, like cars, have come a long, long way since the 'old days'.

[MikeRivers]

This past summer, I had to retire a waffle failed iron that I bought around 1970 to replace the family waffle iron that I inherited. The old family waffle iron had a cloth-wrapped power cord with a large flat female connector on the waffle iron end. The replacement was a GE brand and it was in every way better than the one I grew up with. But eventually its thermostat and power switch failed and I couldn't repair or replace it.

I'm still looking for a suitable replacement. I don't like the "Belgian" waffles that nearly all of the new ones are, and the two I found that make old style waffles didn't make very good waffles and made a mess if they were slightly overfilled (the GE had a lip around the edge of the griddle to catch an overvlow). I tried both the Black and Decker  and the Calfalon and returned both of them.

I saved the griddle plates from the GE waffle maker. They were reversable so it could be used to grill sandwiches (now you have to buy a Panini Press for that). Maybe some day I'll build a waffle iron around them. Now I wish I had saved the chassis.

 

[mcmike100]

My Hammond C3 is 56 years old, and the Leslie is 55 years old. Both work just fine. And I expect they will in another 50 years.

[RockViolin]

 

 The oven that was in the house when I moved in back in '89 just broke in September, to the point that we thought it best to get a new one. I was stirring some sauce, and about 3 seconds after I turned away from it to put something in the sink there was a loud pop and a huge flash and that was that! It blew a hole in the thick steel pan that was on the burner that was going, and I suppose it nearly put a hole in me too. Lucky Me! 

 The old oven was a General Motors/General Electric from 1938. It's out in the garage now under a plastic sheet and we hope to get it refurbished at some point. It has a great look and is in good shape as far as structure and finish are concerned. The new one is faster, more efficient generally, and really really lightweight by comparison. They certainly don't make them like they used to, but it's not a Viking or Electrolux, just a Fridgidaire. Guessing it won't make it 75 years.

[Jeff Leites]

It's not electrical, but I've had this bobbing head and tail turtle since I was of single digit age in the mid '50s.   It still works   I'm sure it cost just pennies back then.

Just for grins, I Googled Bobbing Head Turtle, and found one on Ebay for $14.99.  What an investment! 

 

 

 

[blue2blue]

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Jeff Leites wrote:

It's not electrical, but I've had this bobbing head and tail turtle since I was of single digit age in the mid '50s.   It still works

  I'm sure it cost just pennies back then.

Just for grins, I Googled Bobbing Head Turtle, and found one on Ebay for $14.99.  What an investment!

 

 

 

 

---

 

Vintage pricing.

[Beck]

The furnace in my parent's basement.  It's from the 1950's... converted from fuel oil to natural gas in the 60's.

 

[philbo]

Man, I've got so much stuff like this..

- 1963 Fender Vibrolux Reverb -  Ok, it does need new tube sockets.  But once you give the tubes a bit of a wiggle after turn-on, it sounds and works fabulously.   I hope the Fender Champ 20 I got for my birthday lasts this long! 

- Fender Bassman head

- Teac 3440s 4 track tape machine

- Teac C3 rackmount cassette unit

- Kenwood Manual Turntable - - the thing is massive, with the base made out of granite or something similar.  Got it in the mid-70's, still works flawlessly, though I did replace the needle with a new Shibata stylus about 12 years ago.

- Tannoy 'Proto-J' monitors -- Had these since sometime in the '90s.  They still sound fabulous, and measure flat within 2 or 3 dB across their freq band in an anechoic test. 

I guess my sledgehammer has lasted me 30 years now; haven't even broken the handle on it.

 

Eh, that's enough of that for now.... 

 

 

 

 

 

[Beck]

Also should mention my Tascam 22-2 1/4" half-track reel-to-reel.  Keeps on ticking...

 

 

[mcmike100]

[TeeJay01]

 

An Empire turntable, ~40 years old, also with the original belt. And it's still gorgeous with the anodized gold finish and solid teak. The glass cover is still nice too. My brother has one that's just a few years newer, after they changed to the micro-touch power switch, otherwise it's nearly identical.

 

I might have an old Timex tucked away in a drawer somewhere too ...

[Rekel]

A Bauknecht refrigerator that I bought second hand in 1984 and is still working perfectly in my kitchen as we speak. Considering I didn't take care of it as I should have (defrosting in time) this is nothing short of a miracle.

[sailorman]

 

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TeeJay01 wrote:

 

 

An Empire turntable, ~40 years old, also with the original belt. And it's still gorgeous with the anodized gold finish and solid teak. The glass cover is still nice too. 

---

 

Two of my friends used to own those Empire turntables;   they certainly were nice.   The only negative thing I remember about them was the mechanism that lifted the arm at the end of the record.   Seem to remember it was a magnet that 'grabbed' a small square of ferrous metal on the arm.   If it wasn't adjusted just right, it would suddenly drag the arm across part of the last song with a rather alarming sound through the speakers and  'click' as the arm seated in the mechanism.   They both learned not to use that feature.   Not sure if yours has it or not, but it certainly was memorable.

My 97 year old Dad recently gave me his grandfather's pocket watch which still works perfectly.   So does the wristwatch he was given as a high school graduation gift, guess that would have been around 1934;   still wears it every day.

[AlamoJoe]

My 1967 Fender Super Reverb. Refuses to die. Replaced the Preamp tubes with Sovtecs about 20 years ago. Replaced the rectifer with a solid state one about the same time. Original power tubes. Refitted the ten's with twelves. It'll still cut your head off.

 

[elsongs]

My Yamaha DX7 turned 28 on Christmas Day. Everything still works and sounds fine, though I had to do a teeny-tiny minor solder fix under the hood to get the #32 button to respond again. 

[monstermaker]

I just bought back a seventies Music Man 212 130 amp I originally bought in the early eighties and sold  ten years ago. It's been up and down the east coast and still sounds the same. One of the toughest built I've used but a bit heavy.

That and I still have two Technique turntables that still function well. 

And a sixties Vox wah wah. Says Hammond Organ Company on the bottom plate. Still sounds wonderful.

[Zooey]

I have a Sony Dream Machine clock radio on my nightstand that is probably 30 years old.  Absolutely no reason to change it. 

[RockViolin]

My Roland GP8!

 

As Boss as it gets! I bought it new in 1988 for $999 with some inheritance $$$.

 

Someday... it'll just be cockroaches and scorpions and my GP8! It's been here, there and everywhere and has never, ever let me down.

Best buy I ever made on anything for any reason. Lotsa good times. Wouldn't sell it until every other item I own had been sold first, electric violins not withstanding! philthumb

[rasputin1963]

I have a hairbrush that my mother gave to me for my 10th birthday in 1973. Ya know, it still works fine? By my bedside is a clock radio I purchased in about 1983... it's been all over the world with me, and still works fine.

[WRGKMC]

Having grown up in house full of rare antiques my family collected, it was normal for me to be around vintage stuff that was hundreds of years old.

Between my parents dying and me relocating to a different state, I didn't keep much of what was passed down. I do have one of those old food grinders

made of cast iron that was used all the 56 years I been around and was antique when Our family got it. Its made allot of great hash dinners over the years

and you don't have to worry about a motor burning out.

 

I still have my 69 Blackface Fender Bassman head I bought new when I was 12 and a few other pieces of gear, but just about everything I have I bought myself

either new or used.

[JeffLearman]

This thread might still be around in 10 years, if it keeps coming back from the dead.

 

I bet my Rhodes outlives MCMike's Hammond. It'd have to last 22 years after the Hammond dies, though.

 

I'm still using a mixer I got in 1980: TASCAM M-30, because it has so many nice routing options, it's a handy deskside multipurpose mixer. Takes up a lot more room that a modern one would. The lights in the VU meters are all finally dead. When the mixer dies I'll probably replace it with a MixWizard.

 

Anyway, my little studio is chalk full of old stuff. I tend to keep it until it dies. I see my Roland RE301 Chorus Echo sitting in a corner, sad. It almost works, but seems to need adjustment, or the heads are dead, Jim. Not too long ago I finally gave up on my two Yamaha P2100 power amps from the late 70's. I wish I could find a similar decent (and cheap, though those weren't) passively cooled amp that I could use in the studio! My guitars are old, too -- most of them older than the Rhodes, but none as old as MCMike's B3.

[blue2blue]

I remember the magnet issue. I remember Empire as expensive but I remember having some 'demerits' in my head about them... certainly one was the magnet issue. I can't remember what else. Maybe that was enough. I know that really expensive stuff (and I seem to recall Empire as being at the upper end of the consumer hi fi pyramid) that had flaws really annoyed me on some kind of personal level as a little kid. I was just that kind of kid. As the twig is bent, eh?

 

 

I have my grandfather's old self-winding Omega he bought in Switzerland in the late 50s. I cracked the crystal back in the 70s and had it replaced and the watch cleaned. I don't keep it going like I should (I'm not a wristwatch kind of guy) but last time I wore it for a couple days, it kept great time, just like always.

[blue2blue]

I've got a nice, carved wooden handle natural boar bristle hair brush I bought on a special offer for the then-crazy amount of $5 in 1971 (I had hair nearly down to my waist, a nice brush seemed to make a certain sense). It's missing almost a full row of bristles on one side, but, overall, it's lost less than I have.

[RockViolin]

This thread might still be around in 10 years, if it keeps coming back from the dead.

 

I think that in ten years it won't be recognizable for all the coral and barnacles.

 

My bad though. I was just using my GP8 last night... multed 8 ways from Sunday, and I thought it deserved the mention.

 

Maybe I'll see if I can dredge up one of the- 'learning to read music will turn me into a robot because that's what it did to a church organist I saw one time' -or- 'my first music teacher wouldn't teach me whatever I wanted to learn therefore there was/is a pervasive lack of good music teachers'- threads. .png.197c47f720636f02390cc2b0a33804da.png' alt='smiley-veryhappy'>