Check the images for the absence of a pinch roller to make sure it’s a 4-track tape. Look carefully when choosing – the album must be from the late 1960s and will quite possibly say Muntz Stereo-Pak on it. Both may have a large “4” printed on the label. They were made for the home and car (mostly car), and some units could play both 4-track tapes and 8-track tapes.īEWARE! Some online sellers confuse 4-track tapes with quadraphonic 8-track tapes. To actually play 4-track tapes, you’ll need a 4-track tape player. 4-track cartridges are much more scarce than 8-tracks, but there are always a few for sale online. The 8-track has its own pinch roller in that spot.īrowse 799 current 4-track tape cartridges for sale offers hereĪlthough short-lived, the 4-track era included some great music, including The Beatles, Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd, all five albums by The Seeds, and many others. See the hole in the 4-track where the player’s pinch roller will go (red arrow). Same album on 4-track and 8-track cartridge. What that actually meant was that they are standard-issue 4-track tapes, but designed to accommodate a pinch roller adapter that you could buy. As you insert a 4-track tape in a player, a lever is pushed and the pinch roller swings into place.Ī few 4-track tapes were marketed as 4/8-tracks - that is, compatible with both. It’s the player that provides the pinch roller. In 4-tracks, there is an empty space there instead. Launching in 1965, the 8-track soon became a must have, with most every new model of Ford offering 8-track players by the following year. The main difference between 4-track tapes and 8-track tapes is that each 8-track has a pinch roller inside the case, which presses the tape to the player as it passed by. Often they will say Muntz Stereo-Pak somewhere on the label.Ĩ-track tapes: Vintage cartridge format for music lovers 4-track tapes and their pinch wheel Not every album was released as a 4-track tape, but there are quite a few titles that lucky hunters can find. Huge collection, amazing choice, 100+ million high quality, affordable RF and RM images. Any 4-track cartridge collection will be made largely, or entirely, of albums between about 19. It evolved from the Muntz 4-track and Fidelipac cartridges. The Stereo-8 cartridge, more commonly known as the 8-track tape or 8-track, was developed by Bill Lear in 1964. In contrast, an 8-track plays through its tape four times.īecause 4-track tapes were only manufactured in the late 1960s, nearly all of them are of albums from that time. Image by Flickr user Phil Leitch, available under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license (CC BY-SA 2.0). So, to play a whole album, you play through the entire length of tape twice (each time with a left and right channel, making four tracks). Pioneered by Muntz, 4-track tapes are almost exactly the same size, with the same quarter-inch tape and endless loop system, but the space used for each track across the width of the tape is twice as wide. The beloved 4-track tape cartridge was a rival to 8-track tape cartridges in the late 1960s. Browse Getty Images premium collection of high-quality, authentic Eight Track Tape stock photos, royalty-free images, and pictures.
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