Well, TEAC owms TASCAM, and this is about an A3340S

[lennart]

Hello folks,

Right, so I bought a TEAC A3340S for about the equivalent of 200 of your A-merican dollars. I have some really old tapes that shed very reliably, and keep leaving muck on the heads. The deck seems very tempremental - I had it fixed up when I first got it because tracks two and four didn't record, and after that everything worked fine, but now only track one records reliably, and the other three are pretty lo-fi. My questions:

Does tape gunk affect recording levels to a very great degree?

If the problem isn't tape shed, but signal path, is the TEAC A3340S a machine worth putting a lot of work into, or just worth throwing at that idiot who decided to make a live action Garfield film?

Should I buy some new tapes or just bake the ones I have, which are mostly from the mid 80's, and mostly BASF--?

There's a TEAC 4-track DBX unit at my local dodgy second hand shop for about 130 of your A-merican dollars - how eager should I be to get that?

Should The erase head be expected to reliably remove all traces of previously recorded material? Mine leaves audible, but not distinct remnants.

Thank you for your help gentlemen.

[The Ghost of FM]

This FAQ should answer all your questions.

Please read it.

http://www.vaporpark.com/invboard/in...ST&f=12&t=310&

Cheers!

[Revmuddy]

Originally Posted by lennart

Hello folks,

Right, so I bought a TEAC A3340S for about the equivalent of 200 of your A-merican dollars. I have some really old tapes that shed very reliably, and keep leaving muck on the heads. The deck seems very tempremental - I had it fixed up when I first got it because tracks two and four didn't record, and after that everything worked fine, but now only track one records reliably, and the other three are pretty lo-fi. My questions:

Does tape gunk affect recording levels to a very great degree? YES....to a VERY GREAT DEGREE!

If the problem isn't tape shed, but signal path, is the TEAC A3340S a machine worth putting a lot of work into, or just worth throwing at that idiot who decided to make a live action Garfield film?BEST TO THROW IT

Should I buy some new tapes or just bake the ones I have, which are mostly from the mid 80's, and mostly BASF--?BUY NEW TAPES

There's a TEAC 4-track DBX unit at my local dodgy second hand shop for about 130 of your A-merican dollars - how eager should I be to get that?

Should The erase head be expected to reliably remove all traces of previously recorded material? Mine leaves audible, but not distinct remnants.

Thank you for your help gentlemen.

The A3340S is ancient buy todays standards....You can get a Tascam 424MKIII for $300.00 American dollars and save yourself a butt-load of trouble. If you want a reel to reel you can get a Tascam TSR-8 for around $500.00. It's an 8 track 1/2 inch 15ips recording deck that outperforms the A3340S buy a thousand times. Also the Tascam 34 is a good 4-track reel to reel (1/4 inch)
If you are going to keep the 3340 then get some new tape! Using old tape on these decks is REALLY A BAD IDEA. When the old tape sheds it clogs EVERYTHING up! Hope this helps