At 04:26 PM 2008-09-18, Michael Biel wrote:
Yesterday I had a chance to look thru the bio of Les Paul by Mary Alice 
Shaughnessy.
...
Thanks for the great post. Yes, I think we all agree that the PER(P) head 
arrangement was a horrid trap used as described, but I do think we have 
confirmation he did it at least for a while. In fact, this one-shot 
overdubbing scheme is news as very few people would have the courage to 
try it.
I recall my audio/photography mentor telling me about this in the 1960s 
and likening it to his tricolour carbon prints where at the last minute 
the entire image could wash off the base and go down the drain after hours 
of work.
Sel-Sync seems to be the hold-up, but I would need to take some time to 
pull out the catalogs to see how early this shows up.
The oral histories here
http://recordist.com/ampex/mp3/index.html
might be of some use.
Unfortunately, Ross Snyder passed on in January of this year. There is 
little doubt that it was Ross who came up with the design and name 
SelSync. At the time, Ampex didn't see the need to patent it.
Cheers,
Richard
Richard L. Hess                   email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Aurora, Ontario, Canada       (905) 713 6733     1-877-TAPE-FIX
Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.