Hey Guys!
Sorry to jump on the ship here with a lot of questions, asking to draw upon your expertise without contributing any myself.
The story is this: My girlfriend's grandfather recently died. He was a pretty solitary man and had his hobbies that he liked to practice by himself (building model trains for instance).
Now, since her grandmother has pretty advanced Alzheimer's, she has been taken in by a home. We were asked to help clear out the attic of their house before it will eventually be sold.
We found an Akai 4000DS there with a reel still on. No other reels were anywhere to be found.
We learned that the grandfather bought this thing to record his thoughts whenever he needed to spill them, like a sort of journal. He used to be a judge here so imagine the things he might have told his tapes.
The family now really wants to hear what is on this tape and since I busy myself with music and have my own little home studio, they look at me to do this. They want whatever is on the tape transferred to the computer.
Now I have to say that I have zero experience with reel-to-reel tape machines and so I will need some help to achieve this.
I plugged in the unit and it all seems to be working OK, all parts are present as far as I can tell, except for the rubber stopper that holds the left reel in place.
The reels still turn and everything. When I plugged it into an amplifier I only got noise however. I don't know if this is because the tape is empty or because something is broken. When I connected the phones plug to my guitar amp, same thing.
Now my question is: can someone give me advice on getting this thing running again or how I should test it to find out if it is still in working order?
It was in a dusty attic probably for decades, so should I clean its insides out? How do I go about this, cotton buds and IPA cleaner?
I can post pictures later if needed/desired.
I already came across this site while searching, it seems they have the service and owner's manual available here: Akai 4000DS Manual - Stereo Reel to Reel Tape Recorder - HiFi Engine
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!
Sorry to jump on the ship here with a lot of questions, asking to draw upon your expertise without contributing any myself.
The story is this: My girlfriend's grandfather recently died. He was a pretty solitary man and had his hobbies that he liked to practice by himself (building model trains for instance).
Now, since her grandmother has pretty advanced Alzheimer's, she has been taken in by a home. We were asked to help clear out the attic of their house before it will eventually be sold.
We found an Akai 4000DS there with a reel still on. No other reels were anywhere to be found.
We learned that the grandfather bought this thing to record his thoughts whenever he needed to spill them, like a sort of journal. He used to be a judge here so imagine the things he might have told his tapes.
The family now really wants to hear what is on this tape and since I busy myself with music and have my own little home studio, they look at me to do this. They want whatever is on the tape transferred to the computer.
Now I have to say that I have zero experience with reel-to-reel tape machines and so I will need some help to achieve this.
I plugged in the unit and it all seems to be working OK, all parts are present as far as I can tell, except for the rubber stopper that holds the left reel in place.
The reels still turn and everything. When I plugged it into an amplifier I only got noise however. I don't know if this is because the tape is empty or because something is broken. When I connected the phones plug to my guitar amp, same thing.
Now my question is: can someone give me advice on getting this thing running again or how I should test it to find out if it is still in working order?
It was in a dusty attic probably for decades, so should I clean its insides out? How do I go about this, cotton buds and IPA cleaner?
I can post pictures later if needed/desired.
I already came across this site while searching, it seems they have the service and owner's manual available here: Akai 4000DS Manual - Stereo Reel to Reel Tape Recorder - HiFi Engine
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!