Tascam 122 MKII - How do you clean the heads, & more...

leddy

leddy

Well-known member
Picked one up in a pile of gear I bought from a radio station.

Plays great, no issues there. Recorded sound is hard to get right. I've been playing around with setting the bias & levels. No manual. I ran a 10khz tone into it and set the bias where the vu meter rises then just starts to fall off, then set the levels to 0vu. Using this method gets me a decent sound, but with very rolled off high end. I can adjust the bias to get more high end, but then the sound breaks up easily. What is the correct procedure for aligning this machine?

Also - how do you clean the heads when you can't get to them? (Maybe that's why I have no high end). The metal piece on the back of the tape bay opens and covers the heads when you open the door...

Thanks :)
 
As I remember, if you click to open the door, you can then grasp it with your fingers at each side and lift straight up and it will remove. That's how you then get access to the heads after you click the metal part back to closed position. The plastic door then snaps back down and on when you're finisihed.

I had a couple of those 122s over the years. Even with the pitch control disengaged, both developed a weird sporadic problem after a couple of years where the transport would start speeding by way too fast when in play or record. Montebello simply replaced the entire innards both times and all would be well for a couple of years. But then the problem would come back. Never did know what that was all about at the time I gave the machines away.
 
Update...I had been using a couple of different Maxell XLII's. I tried a TDK SA and got it dialed in pretty quickly. Made some test recordings and they sound great. I even got the heads clean by bending a Qtip.

Now the only remaining issue is that I found the pitch control is FUBAR. When you engage it, the tape slows down and stops. Leave it off and the speed is fine.
 
You may be experiencing problems with the drive motor control board.

Does it appear to speed up the cassette play at all?

You can find long Qtips to clean the heads.
 
GCalo said:
You may be experiencing problems with the drive motor control board.

Does it appear to speed up the cassette play at all?

You can find long Qtips to clean the heads.
Click to expand...

Play does not speed up. If it becomes an issue, is it reasonably fixable or does it spell doom for the deck?
 
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