Just got a Tascam 388!!! Excitement.

N

notbillcosby

Member
I'm thrilled to announce that I just purchased what appears to be (to a 388 newbie at least...) an exceptionally clean Tascam 388. All VU meters light, and everything else that I could test at the previous owner's house seems to work just like it should!

I have a demagnetizer, i have head cleaner and swabs and all that from my 244 mkII... What else do I need?

Oh right. Tape.

I work at Guitar Center and can order tape from RMGI. What do I get? I think I've read somewhere that 457 is the tape to go with, but I don't even know what that number means- I have ZERO experience with reel-to-reel anything. The only 457 tape that shows up in our system right now is from Quantegy, and I can't order through them anymore.

Anyone have any beef with RMGI? If I call them up and ask what their model number is for a 7" reel of 1/4 x 1800 tape is, are they going to laugh at me for asking such a retarded question, or is that all I need to know?

Thanks for the help... This is my first excursion into tape outside of my tascam 4 track and 8 track cassette recorders, which I completely love... This is going to be a nice step up from those and should impose a certain vibe and a modest quaintness that I can't get through my Toft and Reaper. I'm extremely excited to have the oportunity to play around with something like this, I just want to make sure I'm doing it right!
 
Congrats.

Exciting indeed!

The RMGI equivalent of 457 is LPR35. Good stuff. I have no qualms in telling you to go for it and get some.

What kind of demagnetizer do you have?
 
sweetbeats said:
Congrats.

Exciting indeed!

The RMGI equivalent of 457 is LPR35. Good stuff. I have no qualms in telling you to go for it and get some.

What kind of demagnetizer do you have?
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Jeez, I don't know. I got it probably 2 years ago and have used it maybe twice (Took a big break from using the cassettes for a while.) It's a black oval-shaped orb with a short tip completely covered in red rubber. Did I just describe 74% of all the demags in the world?
 
You just described the cheapy ones off of eBay that work okay for cassette but I'd be wary about using it for any open reel deck.

I'm speaking from experience.
 
And, holy cow, the price I can get the RMGI tape for is more than twice what I could get the Quantegy tape for... If I were still able to get the Quantegy tape. Is there any other company to be looking at? Are Emtec and RMGI one in the same?

I'm not trying to be CHEAP... I just want to get this done as cheaply as possible. I know there's the "get what you pay for" factor in play, and I don't want to do anything WRONG and damage my machine or destroy my recordings that I'll be making... I just don't want to spend more than I have to.
 
notbillcosby said:
And, holy cow, the price I can get the RMGI tape for is more than twice what I could get the Quantegy tape for... If I were still able to get the Quantegy tape. Is there any other company to be looking at? Are Emtec and RMGI one in the same?
Click to expand...
They're the same basic formulation, but I'm pretty sure they're separate companies. BASF/EMTEC were German, RMGI is based in NL.

There are two other companies which are currently making tape. One of these is Zonal, who only make 1/4" and appear to have decided against selling it to the US. The other is ATR, but their tape is even more expensive and as I understand it, considerably thicker than is supposed to be used on the 388.
 
Love those boxes. Got to play with one in the early nineties before I went with the R-8. Very slick setup.
 
Han-D-Mag isn't the cheapest way to go, but it is IMHO the best. Look for a used one if need be or look for an old Teac E-2 or E-3...but to do it once and do it right get the Han-D-Mag.

BASF was bought by EMTEC which was then bought by RMGI. So the tape formulations are the same as the old BASF/EMTEC formulations of the same name (i.e. LPR35, SM911, SM900, SM468...). I strongly advise you do not run tape thicker than 1mil on the 388. It is a sturdy transport but it was specifically geared to run 457/LPR35. Everything else mentioned above was 1.5mil or thicker. Don't do it.

If you want to try to cut costs get 3600' pancakes of LPR35 and if you have access to a machine that will run 10.5" reels get some old plastic 7" reels off of eBay or something and spool one pancake off onto 2 7" reels...that'll getcha one 7" reel of LPR35 for around $25 shipped each.
 
I can get reels of LPR35 for $18 and change. If I can find another manufacturer that I can order from, I might be able to find it cheaper... but I don't think there's anyone else I can order through. Is there any way I can find any decent tape for less than this elsewhere, or should I suck it up and spend the $18?
 
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