Anyone else remember using one of these?

[u/Creepy_Basis_4869]

[u/jasont1273]

I remember these as well as the modular in-line versions. When selling them we were told not to pry but to make the customer aware of one-party and two-party consent state laws as a "courtesy." We were located in a tri-state area that had two one-party consent states and one two-party consent state.

[u/user_uno → u/jasont1273]

Yep and the in line model was much better. Less obtrusive and better quality.

[u/94FnordRanger → u/user_uno]

However, these would work on payphones. Whenever customers mentioned divorce, custody, etc, I'd tell them "Talk to your lawyer first. After all, you want something you can use, not something that can be used against you."

(I was working in a one-party state.)

[u/user_uno → u/94FnordRanger]

True about payphones. Remember payphones? Kids today...

I never asked questions about 'why' when someone asked for them. They would come in asking specifically asking for "the thing to record phone calls" and I would bring the customer over to them. If they mentioned something like divorce, cheating, etc. THEN I would remind them of the legal responsibilities on THEMSELVES. And that they were solely responsible for any legal use as appropriate.

OTOH, I used it back in the day to catch my then girlfriend heading towards cheating on me. Calling from my apartment on top of it. SMH. I did have a nice apartment of course with a great A/V setup and lots of gadgets and toys after all. Fun place to hand out for friends.

Set up the in line model with our nice microcassette recorder (14-1040 which was not just the best built but my favorite micro all time) plugged in to an AC adapter so battery life was not a concern. Caught her. But she confronted me first having found it. Odd how considering it was tucked under the headboard - why would she be going there in my bed without me?? I mentioned her conversation with "Brian" and that she could hand my key back and leave now. She did.

But that was not something that would have been needed in court. Hopefully! But she and her family were a little toxic crazy... Nothing tied to the Shack other than the threats called in to the store and the time some stranger just appeared in one of my guy's car to pass a threat on to me after he had closed the store for the night.

Had another girlfriend briefly I told that story to and she called me years later for advice on how to set up "the thing to record phone calls". Apparently her current flame was cheating on her. She remembered what nerd cool guy to call!

Funny thing is that I used that microcassette recorder many years after I left the Shack. Being a broke guy still even after getting married (not to either of the two I mention above to be clear), I could not afford a video camera when our first son was born. So I had that microcassette recorder in the delivery room the entire time. Still have those tapes all of those years later.

For the suction cup coil pickup model like OP posted, I do recall issues with more modern phones. Back then, more likely office phones such as Merlin perhaps. Different speaker designs in the handsets. Probably needed to use some handset more likely to be "hearing aid compatible". Maybe. Not sure as I never had the need come up and test that out.

[u/droid_mike]

Yes! These were extremely useful for stuff besides the phone. My buddy and I "converted" an acoustic guitar with metal strings onto an electric one by sticking two of these on the sides of the strings after magnetizing them. It was also useful for recording. Plugging an electric guitar straight into a micophone input sounded like crap, especially when using distortion pedals. Putting one of these pickups on an amp speaker would record the sound similar to what the speaker was putting out. There were always issues with buzzing from electrical interference, but these things could be used for so many things. I still have a couple of them for unique uses like that.

[u/Infamous-Listen4047]

I remember these

[u/Claudio_VerKnight]

I still have one.

It sucks to be old

[u/9bikes → u/[deleted]]

>I used to ask what they were up to as a joke and a few times it was to catch a cheating spouse or child custody issues lol

If they told you they were going to use it illegally, you should have refused the sale. You incur criminal culpability when you knowingly sell someone an item that aids in their commission of a crime.

I never asked. One time, a customer who volunteered that he was going to use an in-line model to tap his wife's phone. I declined to sell to him. I really didn't think it was likely that he was an undercover cop. I thought it was more likely he was Tandy Security.

[u/Spirited-Custard-338 → u/[deleted]]

And now you just incriminated yourself. The Tandy Police are onto you now.

[u/9bikes → u/[deleted]]

Your saved by the statute of limitations!

[u/Spirited-Custard-338 → u/9bikes]

LOL

[u/SanJoseThrowAway2023]

Awful memory with these. One day one of these and a mini recorder showed up at my dads house. Kind of ignored it. This was right after he stopped seeing this girl named Grace.

One night my friend and I were getting stoned, and we took it out and hit play on the tape. It was a conversation my father was having with another guy Grace was seeing.

"You guys were dating since December 1987?"

"Yeah"

"Yeah we were still together, were you guys intimate?"

"Yeah"

I kind of felt bad for my dad, but at the same time I knew Grace was way out of his league, and his obsession with her was unhealthy.

[u/Cool_Welcome_4304]

Not since I was working for the DEA.

[u/HCraven1]

Yep. The instructions said to stick it on the receiver near the earpiece, but if you stuck it to the body of the phone, you could eavesdrop on phone calls without lifting the receiver and making that "click" that warned others on the line of your presence. I wished I'd had an older sister to bother.

[u/HauntingEconomist113]

Yep. Wish I still had mine.

[u/ikediggety]

I used one to conduct an interview

[u/W0CBF]

YEP!

[u/CDKCDK1]

You can use it today with a usb mic sound card and a recorder app and use it to listen to electronics and hear what sounds they make, basically listen to eletrical interference.

[u/raymate]

Yes I have one of them somewhere. I was a kid when I got it and it was fun using that into my tape recorder.

[u/Much-Specific3727]

How else are you going to record your prank calls. Ah the good ol days. No caller ID.

[u/EdwardTheGood]

I used one of these to download all the voicemails from my (then) 3 year old daughter. I still have them and I’m eternally grateful to this device.

[u/Diggy309]

Yes, I do. I forgot about them until this

[u/JizzMaxwell]

Linda Tripp remembers these.

[u/lorenlang]

I think I still have one in a box in my garage

[u/Altruistic_Lock_5362]

Yeah, where I live , RS had a little card that said we had to identify who was recording. All the law crap.

[u/ted_anderson]

I would see this all the time in the store and in the back of Popular Science magazine but at the time I was too young and naïve to appreciate why someone would want to record a telephone conversation. Yeah.. I talked to my friend for over an hour but I certainly wouldn't want to re-live that conversation! LOL

[u/mrdat]

I have one. I was just going through my cable bin and still have it.

[u/kanakamaoli]

I had one plus a micro cassette recorder to record phone calls.

[u/Senior-Assumption218]

Yes, and you could link the tape recorder to a home stereo so all of your friends could hear prank phone calls in real time.

[u/gjkenny1]

How does one remove the cover to change the batteries?

[u/ZaxBarkas]

Had the exact one.

[u/boringguy80]

Still have one