newbie tascam 388 questions

D

drrats

New member
Hi analog peeps, hoping you might be able to get me started in the right direction here.

So i recently bought a tascam 388 off a friend. It was in storage for a couple of years before I bought it. Very dirty but the heads are in great condition. The cards were also recapped within the last 5 years apparently. I've given it a clean but now that I've powered it on I have some pretty basic questions.

When turn it on no VUs light up. . . not a single one. Nor do any of the light in the control section. Am I missing something here? Might the fuses need replacing?

Both capstan pulleys begin spinning immediately after powering it on (I've got the back off) and both reel tables spin out the front. Is this due to having no tape on the machine? All transport buttons do nothing. I don't have tape to test this out yet.

The table reel on the right is wonky. It also has a noise that comes from it about every second. Can this be adjusted or do you think it is indicative of a bent shaft?

Thanks
 
Okay so I've replaced all the fuses. For some reason the values listed in the manual were different to what were listed on the actual card.

Th good news is that all lights work bar the big R/Effect VU. All transport control lights work and if I pull the right control arm up and hit play the deck actually goes into play mode!

I have looked into the manual am going to try and adjust the reel table to see if that can be done or whether it is bent. I have a two reels that came with the machine but I only want to put fresh tape across the heads now that i've clean the tape path thoroughly.

I am having trouble with the capstan belt. it doesn't seem to want to stay on the capstan rollers. it's not very taught at all. Is there any trick to this? I can get it to stay on whilst its on its side but as soon as I put the 388 on its back and go into play mode the belt comes off instantly.

I also took out the channel cards and the main caps have been replaced. It actually wasn't too hard to do. I'm going to take all the cards out to get new VU bulbs in there I think. I figure if I completely recondition the machine myself then I'll be able to maintain it easily in the future.
 
sorry just some more info on the belt situation. I'm trying to work out what is normal and what isn't here. So when I lift the right control arm the capstan motor pulley starts to turn, but the big flywheel doesn't, so the belt comes off. The capstan motor pully continues to spin without the belt and if I hit play then the 'left reel table' engages and spins normally. I suppose I need to know if the capstan motor pulley be continual spinning whilst there is tape loaded and engaging the control tension arms?

Sorry I know these questions are extremely basic but I'm just trying to work out whats what here. Any help would be very much appreciated!
 
You do need a new belt. The capstan won't spin without the belt. And it's normal for the reel tables to spin when play is engaged while lifting the tension arm.
Just get yourself a new belt. An old loose, slack belt will always drop off.
 
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Okay so I have a new reel table, pinch roller and two belts on the way.

I realised I can get to the right master VU meter lamp by just pulling the cards out that are behind them. I found some original 8v frosted fuse lamps on ebay that are an exact replacement which are also in transit!

I have a question about the power supply card though. Do these caps need replacing or it is just glue or something? Here are some pics. The 388 does power up no problem so not too sure about this. Thanks!

IMG_9742.JPGIMG_9743.JPGIMG_9744.JPG
 
That's just an adhesive. If you power up fine, then they are ok. You can replace them if you want though. Not a bad idea for the power supply.
Do you have a link to seller for those frosted bulbs?
I could use a few myself.
 
The advantage to doing it now is you already have the deck apart anyway. For what it costs in caps, it's cheap insurance to just go ahead and recap while you have everything opened up.
 
Time for an update!

So all VUs are now working, I have a new belt on the capstan, replaced all the fuses and put in a new non-bent table reel (which was a little hard to get perfectly level but it's there now). I have given the whole thing a good clean which included taking out all the audio cards (to check for bad caps or anything strange) and reseating everything back in place nicely. This machine is a pleasure to work on, it's so simple to service even for a novice like myself.


I'm still having some problems however . . .

All functions work nicely when no tape is on the reel tables. FF RW PLAY etc.

When I put tape on the machine it jams the moment I press play. The tape seems to sit slightly lower down the tach roller after the jam. If I roll the right reel say half a turn, by putting tension back on the tape a winding the reel for bit it rides back up onto the rubber of the tach roller and looks right again. Hit play, it jams, then it falls slightly back down on the rubber again. I'm talking 1-2mm here. Not much but enough to know it's definitely not right.

However if after winding everything forward manually for a bit, the machine will rewind extremely slowly if I touch the right hand tension roller a little to get it going. This leads me to believe the tension arms need adjusting. I've read a bit about how to adjust these without the recommended meter in the manual but I really don't want to do this in case this isn't the problem. I'd hate to put the tension arms out of factory position for no good reason. I have found this thread which will help no doubt https://homerecording.com/bbs/gener...pe-and-gear/quick-tascam-388-question-321071/

What does everyone think? If I can get it rewind by touching the right tension it makes me think theres nothing wrong with the tach roller which I have cleaned with water to get it grippy and have lubed it's shaft so that it spins freely. I also have fresh LPR35 on the reels.


EDIT:

I've had a bit of a play around and have noticed some strange things. I originally realised rewind was working if I helped it. I adjusted the left tension arm and it seems to rewind better. I thought I'd better be doing it with equal tensions on the arms so reversed the reels so that the full reel of tape started on the right reel. It started to rewind and it started to go too fast so I hit stop. The tape fell off the transport and there was quite a lot of slack in it. Quite a violent stop. No fastforward or play.
I hit rewind a second time and once again it starts to go really really FAST. I'm talking 20mins of the reel in 5-10 seconds once it really got going. I pressed stop but it wouldn't so it started to slow it by applying pressure to the right reel with my hand.
So now I have the reel at 20mins in. It won't fast forward at all, it actually seems to go backwards if it moves at all when I hit fast forward. Rewind works if it don't let it go out of control fast. Still no play.

Beginning to think this isn't a tension thing so might out the adjustment pots back to where they were before I changed anything.
 
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well if no one has any experience with anything like this the I suppose it's time to take it to a professional?
 
I suggest scouring through threads in the analog forum.
Lots have had extensive experience with this machine.
Unfortunately a lot of the very knowledgeable and active analog guys aren't here anymore.
Sweetbeats pops in from time to time, and i think going through his threads will be a benefit.
There are others that are just forever gone.....sad. lots of wisdom lost.
However, you still have the archives.

Hope you get it fixed.
 
yeah that's what Im doing but I'm really not finding anything related.

When there is no tape and I lift the right tension arm and press rewind, fast forward, and play, it would seem the supply reel table only moves clockwise. Of course, it will only rewind when there is tape on it too.


EDIT

So the take up reel is not doing anything. So strange because when I first got the 388 it needed fuses as none of the VUs lit up and everything was haywire. I've just remembered though, whilst everything was going haywire one thing that was happening was that the take up reel was constantly spinning. That was the only thing that would happen on power on. Now it's not moving at all, but this must mean the take up motor is good right? Which makes this an electrical problem I'm thinking? Feel free to chime if you have some suggestions as to direction to start looking in.

I made a video to make it easier to see whats happening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVXahHhttxs&feature=youtu.be


Also another thing I've noticed is the 'solenoid lifter never engages'. When is this supposed to engage? The tape lifter seems to work fine and engages alongside the pinch roller when I hit play.
 
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Don't know if you've seen the 388 thread on the TapeOp forum, but it's been going since 2009 and has tons of info. Honestly, it looks like you're going to have to bring that into to get looked at by a pro. It's worth it. Those 388's will only continue to be sought after, especially a well maintained one. Hope to hear that you get it straightened out.
 
I watched your video, but I'm thinking the video that would help is to put up something that shows what happens when tape is loaded. If you can do that I might have more thoughts, but it's not clear to me what is happening.

I can't really sort out if you have a straight-forward transport adjustment issue, or there is a fault in one or more transport logic systems/PCB assemblies.
 
Answer these though (and I apologize if this is outlined earlier in the thread...I admit I have not closely read through it):

1. Have you checked the voltages of all the power rails? If you haven't, please do and report back.

2. Have you gone through the transport adjustment/setup maintenance steps as outlined in the manual? Like, start to finish? If you haven't I highly advise you do...you can end up chasing your tail if you don't follow the procedures in step-wise fashion as the proper adjustment of one system is dependent on another.
 
yeah I have gone through the manual and the mechanical adjustment section, I don't really know where to start as some of the adjustment sections, tension arms and ff,rw for example, require the tape to be moving.

I also have no idea how to check the power rail voltages, is this hard to do?

Beginning to think I'm a little out of my depth here . . .
 
The power supply rails are measured using a voltmeter set to DC volts.

I'd have to study the PCB layouts to tell you where to probe...easiest would be from the underside of the motherboard that's under the cardbay where the power supply board plugs in. If I recall correctly there are +/-15VDC rails for audio, +/-12VDC rails for the noise reduction, and +24, +15, and +5 VDC non-audio rails. The +24 is for the transport (motors and such), and the +5 is transport and mixer logic. I can't recall what the +15 is for, but it is transport related. This is all from memory so please don't quote me.

I'd really have to have the unit in front of me to even know what to tell you about your transport problems...I don't know what all you have tested or how you have conducted the tests. I don't mean to offend, but it can quickly turn into TWO people chasing each other's tails when one is relatively inexperienced, and the other can't be and hasn't been at the bench.
 
hey thanks for the help sweetbeats. I've taken it to a professional who is going to diagnose the problem and get back to me. After talking with him today and having a quick look over it I know it's a logic problem as the left reel spins fast at whatever function whilst the take up reel is completely locked up. He's going to put two hours into it and get back to me about whether it's worth going further. Things could get expensive pretty fast as I don't know the history of the machine. Ill keep you guys update on what's happening with it though for sure.

I also couldn't get any signal to read on the VUs when plugging in a microphone in, I suppose this also points to a logic issue?
 
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