My broken 38 report

[Herm]

Ok some of you know that a couple of months ago I bought a tascam 38 and 2 dx-4d,s for 450.00.
But when they got here the recorder was all broke up, the pinch roller could have been used to grease your car and the drive belt was a flimsy mess and just fell off when I turned the unit on.

So i ordered a new pinch roller and a new drive belt for it but the roller came real quick from tascam but I had to wait on the belt cause of Back order.
When I took the machine apart it had hit the floor so hard from ups that it bent the steel under all for feet and pushed the frame up till it broke the front face plastic on the side and bent the meter frame. 4 of the channel boards where knocked out of the chasse and had to be push back in.
So two nights ago the belt came in and I went to work on putting all back together and straightning all the metel parts best i could.
I had to readjust the reel holders cause they had been pushed in.

Then the big test would it pass audio? Would it Record?
And to my suprise it all worked! I couldnt beleive it.
It has a big chunk of plastic out of the side I guess I could try and epoxy back together but that seems to never work so I think I will just watch out for a another 38 that is screwed up and replace it.

It was a real downer getting this thing all broke but it did give me a chance to learn alot about the recorder and found out the 38 is a pretty easy unit to work on. I havnt got into the adjusting of bias or anything like that yet but aleast I have one that I can practice on now.

Here is a pic of the unit now that it pretty much back together for the most part.

[The Ghost of FM]

Hey Herm!

Congrats on getting the troubled 38 going!

I had the idea in my head that it would indeed work after the parts replacement you mentioned and hazaa! it did!

What are your plans for it now?

Will you be using the two machines together for bouncing projects where you fill up 8 tracks on one, then bounce to the second in stereo and have six tracks left over for additional song parts or, did you have a different plan in mind?

Cheers!

[Herm]

I dont know what Im going to do with it. But I have the urge to get another one.
I just love 8 tracks and the limitation,s that go with them.
When I was doing alot of recording I always had to fight with people to keep the track count down. It seems like if they know you can do 30 tracks they can find all kinds of crap to put in a song that doesnt sound good at all.
So now if the guy,s come over again they are stuck with 8 tracks and that s it

Now if I could just trust UPS to not drop everything they put their hands on I would start looking for another one.

[The Ghost of FM]

Now if I could just trust UPS to not drop everything they put their hands on I would start looking for another one.

Do what our friend Rick Fitzpatrick does; Road trip!

[BillyFurnett]

Hey that's looking great considering the circumstances!

It's way cool that you got the experience of working with it as well AND I admire the sprit of turning a bad thing as positive an outcome as possible.. THAT'S the true nature of DIY 'Home Recording' to me.
I recall the feeling of amazement and satisfaction when I took my 4-track apart and brought it back from the dead... I was pretty damn pleased with myself I must admit. LOL
( I'm still shocked that I helped that guy in the Tascam forum preform the same operation with success!)


BTW- I now at least KNOW the next two songs... I just have to finish writing one, record both, then I'll send 3 your way!!

[Vintage TX]

Herm,
great you got it working.
The 38 when dropped usally get cracked boards inside, so you were lucky. Because of the plastic cover and hardly no support, they are sensitive with the cards in shipping.
Congratulations and welcome to the world of analog sound *
I checked my sources here for a used cabinet but no luck Herm.

Good Luck now !

[regebro]

Built like tanks, quite amazing, really. Most stuff would just explode after that treatment.