Greetings all. Here is my Sony WM-701T in a bespoke walnut burlwood box. It has been a long time in the making, but finally I received it today. I had the box handmade in Mayo Ireland, by a really nice guy called Neville O Farrell. Neville has been making bespoke watch and jewelry boxes for some years now. His website is www.lillygraceboxes.com. His work is simply stunning. Attention to detail is second to none. To the best of my knowledge, Neville is the only person in Ireland peoducing such handmade boxes. I purchased this tiffany walkman some years back from a fellow stereo2go member. There were no accessories or box with the Walkman. I had the Walkman carefully re-plated here in Ireland. The resulting finish was perfect. It would have been easy to over plate the Walkman, and thus compromise the lettering. I also had the Walkman repaired, so it now works perfectly. I then purchased a WM-701C, in order to get all the accessories for the Walkman. This walkman has been a labour of love, and has taken many years, and lots of saving to get it this stage. But I think it has been worth it. It is now a truly unique Walkman, which I am very proud of.
Thanks Radio Raheem. This walkman is quite unusual. Although there were only 250 701T's produced each with an individual number of 1-250, this particular 701T has no number. The Walkman was purchased by its previous owner from an American seller, who got the Walkman from Sony headquarters in New York where he worked. My guess is that this walkman was a sample made by Tiffany for Sony to view before going ahead with the 250 numbered ones. There was no box or accessories with the Walkman. Also, the Walkman did not function. The buttons were simply taped in place internally, which would leave me to believe it was never meant to be a functioning walkman or sold. Simply a sample for sony to view. This is just a guess, and I will probably never know for sure.
That makes that particular one even more special. The final look is stunning and it's worth to be shown permanently somewhere at home ;-) I suggest you to upload these very same photos to the walkman media album for everyone to see, mate.
Minty, you left me speechless! Totally agree that the piece belongs in a museum, as an item of love and passion. I do not see myself using one of these: do I have to wear lambskin gloves just to pick it up? That is the question! Also, which headphones would go well (sorry, I meant to say "sound the best") with this beauty?
Well you guys will probably think I'm crazy, but the box cost me 1500 Euro! I know it's a lot of money, but anything bespoke or handmade costs money. The box was made using genuine walnut burl, with tiger wood and elm banding. The blue velvet interior is actually genuine dyed calfskin. I'm by no means loaded with cash, I saved the money over many months to have the box made. Saving the money made the end result all the more pleasing. It's a once off, an heirloom that will be around for many years. As regards the headphones, I've only ever listened to it using the MDR-A20 headphones that would have originally came with the 701T.
Minty, did you say that you re-plated this Walkman? How did you manage that, if I may ask, I mean if it is not a secret.
I had the casings of the Walkman re-plated by a small family business here in Cork Ireland. It is a pretty simple process. An electrical charge is sent through the metal casings, while they are both submerged in a liquid solution that contains silver. The silver then bonds to the casings. It is then gently polished to a mirror finish. The silver finish was slightly worn, mostly around the edges of both casings, as can be seen in the picture.
would this work for plastic Derek??? i have some m90 trims that need chrome plating buddy, i don't care about cost
The cassette lid looks very shinny but the bottom section as fa as i can see shows some evidence of use. scratch or discoloration. Was the job only on cassette lid or the whole casing? As Radio Raheem mentioned i would like to know whether or not this can be done on plastics? by the way do they accept orders?
That picture was taken before the casings were plated. The bottom casing was worst worn. As regards plastic plating, it can be done. Most of the chrome you see on the plastics of Walkmans has gone through this process, which is called electro plating. Here is a company in the UK who specialise in plastic plating: http://www.qppltd.co.uk/
If your interested in doing chrome plating on metal parts, Eastwood (USA) has a fairly inexpensive system. http://www.eastwood.com/ew-electroplating-system-tin-zinc.html?mrkgcl=764&mrkgadid={_mrkgadid}&rkg_id=h-186ce2e98d5bfda988c523b405785c33_t-1511231339&product_id={product_id}&adpos={adposition}&creative={creative}&device={device}&matchtype={matchtype}&network={network}&SRCCODE=PLA00020&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIl9eok8_O1wIV2BiBCh1dcwCNEAQYAiABEgLvMfD_BwE I've got an old Popular Mechanics Book that describes the doing the process for plastic at home, I haven't tried this but it doesn't look hard beyond the nasty chemicals you need to use. https://books.google.com/books?id=Q...nepage&q=electroplating wood, plaster&f=false An article on making sulfuric acid at home, again, I've never tried any of this. https://www.thoughtco.com/make-sulfuric-acid-at-home-608262
Wow that is utterly stunning and as you say, a labour of love. The box is beautiful, a treasure to be handed down later in life so worthy of investment. You mention the walkman buttons were taped in place as if it was never to be used but it sounds like it works fine now, what did you have to do to make it usable?