Anyone feel like giving me head...?

[jake-owa]

Anone feel like giving me head advice?

I know it may be hard to do by photo but I had to try. Would anyone care to guess at the hours or life left on these by the photograph?

I know it's dumb I'm just bored.
thery don't seem to have a comletely flat spot anywhere bu my eye and I can roll a straight edge across it with no complete flatspot visibly apparent.

 

[The Ghost of FM]

I don't know about the heads from that angle of the picture but, the tape lifters need replacement or rotation and the guide posts as well need the same treatment.

When I bought my MS16, my guides and lifters looked like those and I called TASCAM parts right away and ordered and installed fresh stock and kept the old ones for emergency back up.

My heads are kinna worn like the ones in your picture and my technician told me I have about two albums left on them before a re-lap, which he would happily do for 300 bucks plus 75 for a fresh re-calibration that would be required after the re-lapping.

Was that good for you, baby?

Cheers!

 

[jake-owa]

So they can be rotated huh? Is that just as good as replacement? They don't move so it seems it would be fine.

 

[The Ghost of FM]

Well the guide posts 100% for sure, can be rotated. I found out the hard way by ordering fresh parts first and then seeing that once I pulled the old ones that I just as easily could have loosened the screw under the head-mount plate and given them a quarter or half turn and been back on rounded metal again.

In a way, I am still glad I ordered the parts and put the new ones on because the guide posts they sent me were actually for the ATR60-16 and few people know this but, those posts have a deeper channel and less chance of the tape skewing out of the tape path when threading the tape or rocking the reels by hand in a cue mode.

The drawback to the deeper channel is that oxide build up at the top and bottom edges is a little harder to clean out. If you look at your picture again, you will see that some oxide is sitting there, uncleaned at the top of the right guide post. You must be more careful when cleaning, Jake!

The tape lifters, I am not so sure about the rotating part. I will take a peak at my spares and see if the actual lifter arm is screwed to the lever and therefore, turnable or, if they are mounted in an alternate fashion.

Cheers!