The Full Report...
Well, thse of you that have been anticipating this next installment are going to be disappointed right along with me. I'll be posting a link to this over in the packing sticky thread. Yup. Totally inadequately packed. Worst part is that I can tell the eBay Seller took
some time and care to pack it, but the amount of packing and placement of the packing was just sorely lacking and the (former) VGC 234 has taken a solid hit to the left edge of the face.
Here is the view when opening the box...I was hopeful after seeing the box and thinking "Uh oh...that box doesn't look big enough for a cassette deck..."
hopeful because I saw custom cut foam:
Lift the foam top away...uh oh again. Not the "bubble-pack" I was hoping to see:
And pull those sad air bags away and look at the unprotected corners:
At least the Seller didn't put the rack ears right on the top of the case, but they did put the documentation in between...
...the rare VGC brochure didn't get too dented up...
:
Tip up the deck and you can see that the actual bubble-pack that was pieced together around the deck was doing very little. Much of that bubble-pack was deflated anyway:
And then I saw a pitch control knob bent funny-like through the plastic
:
You can also see the impact in the left edge of the faceplate. It must have impacted something pretty hard...don't know what I'm going to do about the pitch control knob...Its the rarest pot on the deck and I'm certain Tascam no longer carries them, and it remains to be seen whether or not it is functioning at all. Such a shame...It is a very clean deck otherwise:
Right side of the face looks okay, though the main shroud is sitting funny at the top-right corner...not sure what is going on there yet:
The left rear corner took a hit also:
Back looks okay:
It still lights up but...:
- Meter #4 jumps all around
- Peak LED #3 lights randomly
- Lots of pops and crackles through the headphones...bad caps? Cracked PCB?
- Can't test transport functions since the deck is in need of a new belt
- Can't even get the cassette door open because the tape door is jammed I'm assuming as a result of the damage to the left edge of the faceplate...)
So basically I just paid $100 for a parts deck.
I'm getting in touch with the Seller. Again, I don't think they were being purposefully negligent, but the Seller and I clearly have a disconnect in what it means to "wrap" something in bubble-wrap. Very sad end for a nice deck.