Well, here goes!
I've recently acquired a broken Tascam M3700 which I had planned to use as spares for my (mostly) working Tascam M3500 but, with some urging from the the board here, I'm instead going to try and repair the M3700 to it's full glory. Feel free to read up on how I got here: Refurb M3500 into an M3700, or M3700 into an M3500....?
For the sake of completeness, here is the back story on the board as I know it:
I bought the board from a guy in western Massachusetts, here in the states. He advertised on Craigslist that he was closing his studio and that he wanted to get rid of the M3700. The price was set at $200 and he said in the posting that the board was not working properly. I contacted him and found out that the board was blowing a specific fuse over and over again. He mentioned that he had done some troubleshooting and discovered that when module 22 and/or module 32 was plugged in the fuse would pop immediately. He then said that even with those two modules unplugged the fuse was still popping after some delay.
I already have an M3500 which I am slowly giving a spit and polish for installation in my new studio. To that end I was ordering spare parts when I could and days earlier had ordered a few spare 4 channel groups for the board at a total shipped cost of well over $200. When I saw the board listed on Craigslist I considered it a good deal even if only for spares. I could see it had the full meter bridge, which my M3500 lacked so I committed to buy it and made the three hour trip out with my dad and his big red van from the late 80s. It's harrowing, but I think worth it
With the board back at my house I began to poke around and see what I could make of it. A few things of note:
1.) The board has the balancing kit providing 16 balanced 'Tape Ins' on DB25 connectors and a mirrored pair of the 8 Group Outs, also on DB25s. (Without the balancing kit the Group Outs are also doubled on the board to make it easier to feed 16 tracks without needing to patch and unpatch.)
2.) The M3700 is the automated version of the M3500 but this M3700 has the optional JL Cooper 'M3700 Pro' automation addon. This will no doubt lead to a series of posts all on it's own.
3.) The seller had both the original Tascam manual in it's binder as well as the JL Cooper manual for the expanded Automation System.
4.) The Expanded automation system seems to be focused around a Mac application and as luck would have it the 3.5" floppy disk containing that application was tucked away inside the binder as well.
5.) The owner before the owner I bought it from had the first 16 channels modded with Burr Brown 2604 opamps. All 5 of the opamps on those channels have been replaced.
The fuse in question feeds the input section of the board so none of the I/O work but everything else seems fine. The on board automation system seems to work and all the lights and meters are working as well. I can save and load snapshots but with out audio it all seems little silly...
More to come!
I've recently acquired a broken Tascam M3700 which I had planned to use as spares for my (mostly) working Tascam M3500 but, with some urging from the the board here, I'm instead going to try and repair the M3700 to it's full glory. Feel free to read up on how I got here: Refurb M3500 into an M3700, or M3700 into an M3500....?
For the sake of completeness, here is the back story on the board as I know it:
I bought the board from a guy in western Massachusetts, here in the states. He advertised on Craigslist that he was closing his studio and that he wanted to get rid of the M3700. The price was set at $200 and he said in the posting that the board was not working properly. I contacted him and found out that the board was blowing a specific fuse over and over again. He mentioned that he had done some troubleshooting and discovered that when module 22 and/or module 32 was plugged in the fuse would pop immediately. He then said that even with those two modules unplugged the fuse was still popping after some delay.
I already have an M3500 which I am slowly giving a spit and polish for installation in my new studio. To that end I was ordering spare parts when I could and days earlier had ordered a few spare 4 channel groups for the board at a total shipped cost of well over $200. When I saw the board listed on Craigslist I considered it a good deal even if only for spares. I could see it had the full meter bridge, which my M3500 lacked so I committed to buy it and made the three hour trip out with my dad and his big red van from the late 80s. It's harrowing, but I think worth it
With the board back at my house I began to poke around and see what I could make of it. A few things of note:
1.) The board has the balancing kit providing 16 balanced 'Tape Ins' on DB25 connectors and a mirrored pair of the 8 Group Outs, also on DB25s. (Without the balancing kit the Group Outs are also doubled on the board to make it easier to feed 16 tracks without needing to patch and unpatch.)
2.) The M3700 is the automated version of the M3500 but this M3700 has the optional JL Cooper 'M3700 Pro' automation addon. This will no doubt lead to a series of posts all on it's own.
3.) The seller had both the original Tascam manual in it's binder as well as the JL Cooper manual for the expanded Automation System.
4.) The Expanded automation system seems to be focused around a Mac application and as luck would have it the 3.5" floppy disk containing that application was tucked away inside the binder as well.
5.) The owner before the owner I bought it from had the first 16 channels modded with Burr Brown 2604 opamps. All 5 of the opamps on those channels have been replaced.
The fuse in question feeds the input section of the board so none of the I/O work but everything else seems fine. The on board automation system seems to work and all the lights and meters are working as well. I can save and load snapshots but with out audio it all seems little silly...
More to come!
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