Presto

Recording Corporation

reel to reel tape recorder

Presto ads from 1955 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection
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PLEASE NOTE: None of the Vintage Museum items are for sale.

 

Manufacturer Profiles

© 2018 Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording  •  Webmaster • All pictures and content on this web site are the property of the Theophilus family,the Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording and reel2reeltexas.com • Photos of items in our collection are available for sale. We do NOT provide copies of ads, nor photos from other sources! All photo work is billed at studio rates and a deposit is required.

This is a list of information we have gathered from a variety of sources on some of the major analog reel to reel tape recorder and related equipment manufacturers. While we have strived to provide the best information available to us, there will be corrections and additions. We include personal stories about the companies when they are provided to us.  We always invite input on corrections and updates. Thank you!

Statistics 20142015  •  News coverage #1  News coverage #2  • view overview video of tape recorder collectionmobile videomore info • See also Multi-Track recording

Go to: • 3MAEG/MagnetophonAIWAAkaiAltecAmplifier CorpAmpexAmproA. R. VetterAstaticAstrocom/MarluxBang & OlufsenlBell & HowellBell LabsBerlant ConcertoneBeyerdynamicBrenellBraun GmbH/ASEBrüel & KjærBrushCetec GaussConcordCraigCrown • DenonDokorderDualEdisonEicoElectro SoundElectro VoiceEMI/GramophoneFairchildFerrographFostexFreemanGEGrundigHeathKitITCJVCKLHLeevers RichLyrecMagnecordMara MachinesMarantzMaxellMCIMitsubishiNagraNakamichiNeumannNewcombNeveOkiOtariPentronPhilipsPioneerPrestoRadio Shack/RealisticRangertoneRCAReeves SoundcraftRevereRobertsRolaSansuiSanyoScullySennheiserShureSolid State LogicSonySoundcraftSpectoneStancil HoffmanStellavoxStephensStuder ReVoxTandbergTape-AthonTapesonicTeac/TascamTechnicsTelefunken • ThorensTolnai ToshibaUher VikingVortexion Ltd UKWebster Chicago/WebcorWebster ElectricWestern Electric/AltecWilcox-GayWollensak

View calendar which lists company creation dates associated with world and recording history

 

 

Presto logo in the Museum of magnetic Sound Recording

Not to be confused with National Presto, founded in1905 manufacturing pressure canners.Presto built Sonora phonographs

The Presto Products Company was founded in 1915 producing disc recorders and the Sonora phonograph. 

Back around 1910, many companies were trying to get into the manufacturing and selling of one of the hottest items on the market, the phonograph. One of these companies was Sonora, which used "Clear as a Bell" as its slogan, touting the fidelity of its machine's sound reproduction.

The Sonora Chime Company was reincorporated in February of 1913 as the Sonora Phonograph Company by its founder George Brightson. It was located at 78 Reade St., New York City.

Sonora Phonograph factory Saginaw, MI photo  from Antique Radio ForumsAn earlier attempt by the Sonora Phonograph Company in 1909 to sell horns and hornless machines made by a Swiss company named Paillard had run into legal problems and went nowhere. Paillard at that time was also a major manufacturer of music boxes. Sonora Phonograph factory Saginaw, MI (left photo from Antique Radio Forums).

A company named Presto Products produced the Sonora phonographs.  Sonora also bought thousands of itsphonograph motors from a Swiss Company named Bawdy.

Sonora was one of the companies that were allowed to exist by the big three (Victor, Edison and Columbia) to avoid threats of a trust suit. Because Sonora had paid a lot of money in royalties on patents held by the big three on a per unit basis, it could only compete with them on their high-end machines.

In fact, Sonora ads say, "The Highest Class Talking Machine in the World." The prices ranged from $60 to $2,500. The hardware varied from unit to unit indicating that they were most likely made by various manufactures. The fancy cabinets were Sonora's best selling point, along with its "award-winning magnificent, pure, clear, rich mellow tone." In 1915, the Sonora Phonograph Company won the award for tone at the Panama Pacific Exposition.

Sometime in the middle of 1919, the Sonora Phonograph Company opened an assembly factory in Saginaw, Michigan, and the company headquarters was moved there in the summer of 1927. At that time, Michigan was the center of cabinet production, especially in the Grand Rapids area. Sonora at this time also had a branch in Oakland, California, that later became Magnavox. Sonora went out of business in 1932, and emerged later as the Duall Company in 1932, and became Presto Recording Corp. in 1933. The company was incorporated in New York in 1934 by Morris Gruber, George Saliba, Aaron Benjamin, and Mr. Sholes (Mr. Benjamin's son-in-law). 


Here's a bit more from Alan C Graves.

PRESTO's most important contribution to the world of Broadcasting and Recording was the lacquer coated instantaneous recording disc. PRESTO was one of three Presto Factory 1941 Alan C. GravesPresto Factory 1940 Alan C. Gravescompanies to have developed versions of this disc - the others were in France and England - and the PRESTO version was introduced to the US in the fall of 1934, after several years of experimentation.

The disc consisted of an aluminum plate coated with a cellulose nitrate based lacquer (not "acetate"), and offered dramatic improvement over embossing uncoated aluminum and pre-grooved plastic discs formerly used for instantaneous recording. While those systems had been patented, cutting a groove in a soft material was now in the Public Domain. It was a common industrial practice to coat aluminum with various substances. Thus the US Patent Office deemed that making and cutting lacquer blanks was nothing new, and thus unpatenable. This resulted in several companies making similar blanks soon after PRESTO introduced their disc.

The "PRESTO DISC" quickly became the industry standard, and by 1936 PRESTO recording equipment was being installed in stations nationwide. The PRESTO system was the foundation of NBC's Radio Recording Division, which began operation in the spring of 1935, and was also adopted by CBS when that network began its recording service in 1938.

While there have been refinements over the decades, the basic coated lacquer disc remained the industry standard for instantaneous recording, and is used to this day in the preparation of master discs for analog phono records. The development of the coated disc is a vital accomplishment in the technology of recorded sound, and PRESTO got the credit.

One of the earliest documented use of PRESTO recorders for delayed broadcast was of the Hindenburg disaster in May of 1937. Reporter Herb Morrision and engineer Charlie Nehlsen had been invited to record interviews of passengers embarking from the voyage. History tells of a different story. THE PRESTO HISTORY PAGE

 


Presto Recording Corporation was sold July 2, 1956 to Unitronics Corporation of Long Island City,NY.Six months earlier Unitronics had purchased the David Bogen Co. Presto was merged with the David Bogen Co., and became Bogan Presto logo in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collectionthe Bogen-Presto division (note the 1959 & 1960 ads below).  Bogan manufactured 16 inch transcription turntables in the early 1930's and was one of the few competitors of Western Electric.  Bogan and Presto had an earlier relationship importing and distributing phonographs from Europe. 


On January 6, 2020 Larry DeVivo shared the following Presto ads, information and photos.

"I'm in the process of recreating a 1960’s 3 track studio myself.  I have the Presto 850 from Mark Wilder, I have a 12x3  Langevin tube console from UCLA’s theater, film and television department (being modeled to include a two buss section as well speak), I have 6 Altec 9061A equalizers and two Langevin 253 EQ’s built into channels 1 and 2 of the console, I have a custom made 3 channel Highland Dynamics BG2 vari MU limiters (switchable between RCABA6A circuitry and Abbey Road RS124 circuitry). I have a mono EMT 140 plate reverb for the center channel and an AKG BX20 for the stereo sides.  It has taken me 15 years to acquire all this equipment... but what a sound."

Presto photos, ads and information provided to MOMSR by Larry DeVivo  Presto photos, ads and information provided to MOMSR by Larry DeVivo  Presto photos, ads and information provided to MOMSR by Larry DeVivo   Presto photos, ads and information provided to MOMSR by Larry DeVivo  Presto photos, ads and information provided to MOMSR by Larry DeVivo  Presto photos, ads and information provided to MOMSR by Larry DeVivo  Presto photos, ads and information provided to MOMSR by Larry DeVivo  Presto photos, ads and information provided to MOMSR by Larry DeVivo

Presto photos, ads and information provided to MOMSR by Larry DeVivo Presto photos, ads and information provided to MOMSR by Larry DeVivo   Presto photos, ads and information provided to MOMSR by Larry DeVivo  Presto photos, ads and information provided to MOMSR by Larry DeVivo  Presto photos, ads and information provided to MOMSR by Larry DeVivo  Presto photos, ads and information provided to MOMSR by Larry DeVivo 

 

Presto Recording Corporation sold disk and reel to reel tape recorders to the radio and broadcast industry.  Here are a few ads for their recorders.

1937

1937 ad for Presto Disc recorders in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection

1938

1938 catalog ad for Presto Disc recorders in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection

1939

1938 catalog ad for Presto Disc recorders in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  1938 catalog ad for Presto Disc recorders in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection

1940

1940 ad for Presto disc recorders in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  1940 ad for Presto disc recorders in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection

1942

Presto ads from 1942 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection

1946

1946 ad for Presto Disc recorders in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection

1947

1947 ad for Presto products in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection

 

1948

Presto ads from 1948 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1948 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1948 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1948 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection

1949

Presto ads from 1949 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection Presto ads from 1949 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1949 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1949 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection

1950

Presto ads from 1950 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection Presto ads from 1950 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1950 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1950 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1950 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection   Presto ads from 1950 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection

1951

Presto ads from 1951 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1951 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1951 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1951 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1951 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection

1952

Presto ads from 1952 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1952 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1952 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1952 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection 

1953

Presto ads from 1953 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1953 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1953 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1953 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1953 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1953 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection 

1954

Presto ads from 1954 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1954 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1954 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1954 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1954 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection

1955

Presto ads from 1955 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1955 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1955 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1955 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection

1956

Presto ads from 1957 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection

1957

Presto ads from 1957 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Presto ads from 1957 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection 

1959

Bogan Presto ads from 1959 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection

1960

Bogan Presto ads from 1960 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection  Bogan Presto ads from 1960 in the Reel2ReelTexas.com vintage reel tape recorder recording collection


Photos below provided to our museum by others

We appreciate all photos sent to our museum. We hope to successfully preserve the sound recording history. If we have not credited a photo, we do not know its origin if it was not taken by the contributor. Please let us know if a photo on our site belongs to you and is not credited. We will be happy to give you credit, or remove it if you so choose.

Presto photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection

Presto 6N

Presto 6N record cutter photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection  Presto 6N record cutter photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection  Presto 6N record cutter photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection

Presto D7

Presto D7 record cutter photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection  Presto D7 record cutter photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection  Presto D7 record cutter photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection Presto D7 record cutter photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection   Presto D7 record cutter photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection   Presto D7 record cutter photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection    Presto D7 record cutter photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection   Presto D7 record cutter photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection  Presto D7 record cutter photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection  Presto D7 record cutter photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection      


Presto photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection  Presto photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection      Presto photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection 

Presto PC1014

Presto PC 1014 reel to reel tape recorder photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection  Presto PC 1014 reel to reel tape recorder photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection  Presto PC 1014 reel to reel tape recorder photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection  Presto PC 1014 reel to reel tape recorder photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection  Presto PC 1014 reel to reel tape recorder photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection

Presto PC1024

Presto PC 1024 reel to reel tape recorder photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection  Presto PC 1024 reel to reel tape recorder photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection  Presto PC 1024 reel to reel tape recorder photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection  Presto PC 1024 reel to reel tape recorder photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection

Presto 800 Series

Presto 800 Series reel to reel tape recorder photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection  Presto 800 Series reel to reel tape recorder photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection  Presto 800 Series reel to reel tape recorder photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection  Presto 800 Series reel to reel tape recorder photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection  Presto 800 Series reel to reel tape recorder photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection  Presto 800 Series reel to reel tape recorder photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection  Presto 800 Series reel to reel tape recorder photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection  Presto 800 Series reel to reel tape recorder photo in the MOMSR R2RTexas Theophilus vintage reel tape recorder collection


Presto 825 08/17/22 Phillip Chance FB

 

 

Go to: • 3MAEG/MagnetophonAIWAAkaiAltecAmplifier CorpAmpexAmproA. R. VetterAstaticAstrocom/MarluxBang & OlufsenlBell & HowellBell LabsBerlant ConcertoneBeyerdynamicBrenellBraun GmbH/ASEBrüel & KjærBrushCetec GaussConcordCraigCrown • DenonDokorderDualEdisonEicoElectro SoundElectro VoiceEMI/GramophoneFairchildFerrographFostexFreemanGEGrundigHeathKitITCJVCKLHLeevers RichLyrecMagnecordMara MachinesMarantzMaxellMCIMitsubishiNagraNakamichiNeumannNewcombNeveOkiOtariPentronPhilipsPioneerPrestoRadio Shack/RealisticRangertoneRCAReeves SoundcraftRevereRobertsRolaSansuiSanyoScullySennheiserShureSolid State LogicSonySoundcraftSpectoneStancil HoffmanStellavoxStephensStuder ReVoxTandbergTape-AthonTapesonicTeac/TascamTechnicsTelefunken • ThorensTolnai ToshibaUher VikingVortexion Ltd UKWebster Chicago/WebcorWebster ElectricWestern Electric/AltecWilcox-GayWollensak

 

 

 

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© 2018 Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording  •  Webmaster • All pictures and content on this web site are the property of the Theophilus family,the Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording and reel2reeltexas.com • Photos of items in our collection are available for sale. We do NOT provide copies of ads, nor photos from other sources! All photo work is billed at studio rates and a deposit is required.