Head Critique

[themaddog]

Hey all,
I have a pic of the heads of an MSR-16, and was curious about everyone's thoughts of their condition. It's from an eBay auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...ME:X:RTQ:US:11

Do these heads appear to be in decent shape? To me it looks like the pinch roller could be cleaned up or changed out, but otherwise it seems OK.

Just wanted your opinions, thanks,
-Pete

[The Ghost of FM]

The guide post and lifters more clearly show a moderate amount of wear compared to the one shot of the heads so it's pretty hard to say exactly how bad the wear is. I'd say it's about due for a re-lapping job pretty soon but on the good side, the wear appears even from top to bottom so at least everything is in good alignment.

The pinch roller doesn't appear to be shiny so perhaps a good cleaning with some Caig RBR should bring that back to good health.

About the wear on the rest of it; you'd really have to see how well it treats tapes in regard to shedding as that will be the deciding factor if it should get re-lapped. If shedding is minimal, you should be able to record a couple of album's worth of material before taking that service plunge.

Cheers!

[A Reel Person]

Still very usable and good head life left.

That machine looks very clean too, which is good!

[themaddog]

Thanks for your help guys!

-MD