New Toy!

T

The Ghost of FM

Banned
I haven't bought any sound gear in a long time! But, earlier today I was poking around on Kijiji, (CL equivalent up here) and came across a TASCAM GE-20B eq. It was pretty filthy in the pics of it and its also missing a few of the fader caps but it works well enough and the seller only wanted 50 bucks for it, $40 US. I didn't really need it for anything specific other then a plan I've had in my mind to set up a second 2 channel system in my office at home here.

A tiny bit of rack rash but not bad compared to others I've seen. Wonder if I can find some automotive brown fleck paint to do some tiny touch ups? Anyone got some spare knobs kicking around?



View attachment 92514



Cheers! :)
 
Flower pot guy would've made you break the bank for that!

Full marks lad! (In my best sean connery voice)
 
Sweet! That's a major steal at that price. I see fader caps pop up on eBay from time to time. I'm sure you'll eventually get them all replaced. Have you contacted Tascam Parts? It never ceases to amaze me what old parts they still have laying around.
 
Beck said:
Sweet! That's a major steal at that price. I see fader caps pop up on eBay from time to time. I'm sure you'll eventually get them all replaced. Have you contacted Tascam Parts? It never ceases to amaze me what old parts they still have laying around.
Click to expand...

Emailed them this morning. I'm expecting a response back from them somewhere around the start of WW-IV. :D

Also have a couple of buddies in the repair shop game who are digging through their spare parts piles. No calls back from them either...yet.

The fader caps are virtually the same for the Teac GE-6 and the GE-20 except they're black with a white stripe and the Tascam caps are brown with a red stripe.

Garage sale season is soon starting up too! Many options for this happy hunter!

Cheers! :)
 
By the way, I always call Tascam Parts rather than email. I never hear back when I've emailed. :/
 
Beck said:
By the way, I always call Tascam Parts rather than email. I never hear back when I've emailed. :/
Click to expand...

Ordinarily in the past I have called them directly as the Canadian distribution company, Teac Canada, is located in town here and no long distance charges were involved. At the moment, I don't have a long distance plan with my phone company and Teac Canada has handed back all parts inquiries and sales to California as of April 2013. So if I call them, I'm going to end up with a phone bill in excess of what the parts are worth. :(

Maybe someone in the Montebello area could make a call on my behalf just to find out if they have them in stock and how much they cost?

Cheers! :)
 
The Ghost of FM said:
Ordinarily in the past I have called them directly as the Canadian distribution company, Teac Canada, is located in town here and no long distance charges were involved. At the moment, I don't have a long distance plan with my phone company and Teac Canada has handed back all parts inquiries and sales to California as of April 2013. So if I call them, I'm going to end up with a phone bill in excess of what the parts are worth. :(

Maybe someone in the Montebello area could make a call on my behalf just to find out if they have them in stock and how much they cost?

Cheers! :)
Click to expand...

I'll call them tomorrow morning and see what they got for the GE-20B. I've had good experience with the techs there knowing their stuff when it comes to original parts and alternatives if the originals are out of stock. I've always liked that EQ. Really great find you got there...
 
Beck said:
I'll call them tomorrow morning and see what they got for the GE-20B. I've had good experience with the techs there knowing their stuff when it comes to original parts and alternatives if the originals are out of stock. I've always liked that EQ. Really great find you got there...
Click to expand...

Tim, thanks so much for doing that for me! :)

I don't want you to do that if it incurs an expense for you though. That's why I suggested someone who is local to their office.

About the sound quality of this eq, I can attest to its quietness and clarity. Definitely a quality piece both in the tank like construction quality and sound performance.

Cheers! :)
 
Talked to a gal at Tascam Parts in Montebello about replacement slider caps. Unfortunately no dice. She did a thorough job of trying to track down alternate parts... had me on hold for a bit. She said any other units that might have those caps or similar are all discontinued so no stock left. I have one more contact in Chicago I'll try to get a hold of tomorrow. He used to be an authorized Tascam tech and seems to have all kinds of of odds and ends nobody else does. And no trouble at all. My mobile phone plan is USA coast-to-coast with no extra charges.

Cheers!
 
Beck said:
Talked to a gal at Tascam Parts in Montebello about replacement slider caps. Unfortunately no dice. She did a thorough job of trying to track down alternate parts... had me on hold for a bit. She said any other units that might have those caps or similar are all discontinued so no stock left. I have one more contact in Chicago I'll try to get a hold of tomorrow. He used to be an authorized Tascam tech and seems to have all kinds of of odds and ends nobody else does. And no trouble at all. My mobile phone plan is USA coast-to-coast with no extra charges.

Cheers!
Click to expand...
Thanks so much for checking that out for me, Tim! :)

Kind of sad though that they don't have any of those caps left. Anyway, maybe your other Chi-town source has some kicking around still so fingers crossed on that one! I also haven't heard back from my local techies yet either. I should call them back to see if they forgot about me...which they probably did.

Also bought some brown touch up paint yesterday and man, was it it ever off by a mile! Depending on the light source, that face plate can look anywhere from brown to green to gray! No wonder TASCAM always photographed these units in black and white in their brochures! :D

Cheers! :)
 
You're welcome, Jeff. About ten years ago I found an Anodized Bronze color by Rust-Oleum that matched the funky Tascam color spot on. Back then I took a piece from an M-208 and matched the color to the cap on the can. I have that can around here somewhere. I'll try to find it so I can get the exact model number. I can't find my post on this site, so I may have posted it on Tascamforums.com when you were the mod for the analog section and I was a mod for the DIY section.

Another member here posted a similar story in 2010. I guess I'll take his word for it that the same thing happened to him, but it sure sounds like my old post.

Anyway, I also used that anodized bronze paint to touch up the rack ears on a Tascam M-1B line mixer and it was perfect. I would not have thought "Bronze" when trying to find that elusive Tascam color before that.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for color and paint tips, Tim! :thumbs up:

I was hella-dumb when I went to the store yesterday as I forgot that they've got a computer color matching system there and can make up a custom blend that should work far better then my brain dead idea to just get something that said brown on the can. :facepalm:

Luckily, this store has a pretty liberal return policy, so I'll likely go back there later today to return what I bought and take one of the rack ears with me to get a proper color match and then the associated paint to do this right. I don't think they have that brand you mentioned here in the great white north though.

Stay tuned for updates on this crazy adventure! :D

Cheers! :)
 
Returned the brown paint and went for the computer match system they had there. First coat is on now and drying and looks extremely close to the original wet and hopefully even closer once it dries in 2 to 4 hours. This stuff is called Max Gard anti-rust enamel gloss by Benjamin-Moore. The smallest amount they could make up was a quart though, so I'll have lots of leftover paint once this all done. :D



Cheers! :)
 
Can never have enough Tascam brown!
Did you get it made up in a rattle can or just regular brush on?
 
The Ghost of FM said:
Returned the brown paint and went for the computer match system they had there. First coat is on now and drying and looks extremely close to the original wet and hopefully even closer once it dries in 2 to 4 hours. This stuff is called Max Gard anti-rust enamel gloss by Benjamin-Moore. The smallest amount they could make up was a quart though, so I'll have lots of leftover paint once this all done. :DCheers! :)
Click to expand...

You could get some of those nifty Testors empty glass jars, the kind the car and airplane modeling crowd use. Package some up and label it as tascam touch up paint, and sell it. Could be a market.
 
j.harv said:
Can never have enough Tascam brown!
Did you get it made up in a rattle can or just regular brush on?
Click to expand...

Regular brush on mini paint can. Instructions on the can stated it was compatible with professional air brush systems though.

I just used a toothpick as my brush as I'm dealing with pretty small areas that just require the tiniest dab to fill in the scratch points which the first photo in this thread documents.

Cheers! :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top