My Tascam 388 reel-to-reel

[LarryLurex]

I bought a used Tascam 388 for $190. It's pretty cool. It's an 8-track reel-to-reel with a built in full mixer. It's huge and very heavy, but I love it.

The heads need relapped, as the sound is a little hissy and I have to turn up the high EQ to get the right response, but I have been using it to mess around with lately anyway.

Have any of you used this machine?

[skweeks]

that's a really good price.. i'm not sure of how much the heads cost to get relapped, but i've seen 388's on ebay going for upwards of $500 with head quality "decent" at best

[CMiller]

A friend of mine had one of those machines and he just loved it. We did all kinds of cool stuff with it. Fun machine.

[rocky]

sk-
$500, eh? Boy, that's almost a tempting point to lead me to sell my trusty old 388. But, it would be like selling out an old friend, you know?

Guess I'm doomed to having this sentimental attchment to old --I mean *vintage*-- gear. No doubt that some very nice sounding work can come out of those old 388 beasts.