I'm not gonna flip out ...

famous beagle

famous beagle

Well-known member
So I was recording some ideas tonight on my Sony TC-530 machine, and for the first hour or so, everything was peaches. But on the last playback of the night, I heard the first fluctuation in pitch and could tell that it had slowed down ever so slightly. I confirmed it when I checked the pitch on my guitar. It was playing back probably 10 cents flat or so.

I've listened to probably two hours on this machine so far --- one was a "recorded once" tape that I bought on eBay which ended up having a live a capella concert from 1968 in a high school on it. I listened to most of that today when I was making breakfast.

So, I did think about the possibility of sticky tape. However, before I recorded tonight, I cleaned the heads (and demagged for the first time) and didn't really notice anything out of the ordinary (no gunky build-up).

I took the machine apart earlier tonight to fix a meter issue (success), and I noticed that the belts look to be in very good shape and definitely don't look original. In fact, they looked really new.

The pinch roller looks fairly old, so that was my next thought.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!
 
What brand of tape and tape type(s) are you using? Some of the older Scotch tapes (maybe 175? can't remember) can squeal and drag.

Make sure to clean all guides and every metal part that touches tape ... sometimes you have to really dig in and use your fingernails.

Could be the rubber on the pinch roller ... if its too hard or too soft (touch and see if it's sticky at all).

Holdback tension could cause this as well ... Or of course, something really going wrong (motor? etc.) ... but I'm not a tech, so I'll leave that to the more experienced folks here.
 
Thanks for the response. The tapes I've used so far are:

Capitol 2 low noise tape: 1.0 mil polyester 1800 feet 7-inch reel
Capitol 2 Low Noise Recording Tape Type 1869 1 0 Mil Polyester 7" Reel 1800 Ft | eBay

Sony PR-150: same specs as above
Sony PR 150 7" Reel to Reel Tape with Box Buy 1 or All Excellent Condition | eBay

The problem specifically happened with the Capitol tape, which was unopened. The Sony tape is "recorded once" tape. I have two of the Sony tapes. I've listened to one of them (the one with the a capella choir concert) for over an hour and never noticed anything. That was recorded at 3 3/4 ips, but I was recording at 7 1/2 ips on the Capitol tape when I encountered the issue.

I cleaned all the metal contact points and didn't find any gunk anywhere. The pinch roller doesn't feel sticky, but it could be hard. To be honest, I'm not really sure what a fresh pinch roller is supposed to feel like. It certainly doesn't look new (it's tinted a brown color), that's for sure.
 
With the age of that machine it could possibly a capstan motor capacitor as I had a model on my bench that slowed way down. When I looked at the cap to the AC motor it was leaking a yellow stuff. I put a new cap in that I have around about the same value and the speed returned to normal and stayed that way. These caps are not electrolytic but usually oil Phase advance capacitor also known as motor run caps. Some people are using smaller film caps at the right or higher voltage.
 
skywaveTDR said:
With the age of that machine it could possibly a capstan motor capacitor as I had a model on my bench that slowed way down. When I looked at the cap to the AC motor it was leaking a yellow stuff. I put a new cap in that I have around about the same value and the speed returned to normal and stayed that way. These caps are not electrolytic but usually oil Phase advance capacitor also known as motor run caps. Some people are using smaller film caps at the right or higher voltage.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much for the tip! I'll check that out. :)
 
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