by Chuck Kirkpatrick
I remember doing sessions in "B" at Criteria with one of Jeep's first 8 tracks built on the Ampex 300 deck/platform. Jeep had to build a special tape lifter/gate mechanism to accommodate the 1" tape and head stack, not common to 300's. The lifter had to be operated manually along with that hideous "gear shift" lever that selected Play, Fast Forward, or Rewind, then pushing the "Start/Stop" button. A real handful (imagine doing vocal overdub sessions....punching in every 4 bars...). well, more than once, that tape lifter assembly came apart in my hands, which meant ff and rw with tape against heads (better turn down the control room volume!!) Ah, the good old days...