New Heads? Problem?

poopchute

New member
Ok,
I just had some work done by JRF magnetics. I sent him my old TSR-8 headstock and had him order 1 new rec/play head. The pic is from the head. At first look I thought it looked great. Brand new. And its even golden when all other heads I have seen were silver. But today i was looking closely at it with a flashlight when I noticed something. You can see in the pic i have circled the part Im talking about. You cant see these when just looking at it with the naked eye. You have to have a flashlight shined on it and it will reflect. So are these a bad thing? Should i request a new head? Any ideas?
Headzz.jpg
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Anyone else? I kinda want to know what this is before I make a big deal out of it. Im thinking that they are probably not a big deal since they are off to the side of where the tape hits the head but I paid good money for it so I want a perfect head...
 
Just to clarify, is this a brand new head from TASCAM or a re-lapped one? Does it come off with alcohol + cotton? I dunno how they're packaged but maybe it's foam that stuck to the head?
 
Its supposed to be a brand new head from Teac. What you are seeing cant be seen by the naked eye. I only saw it when I was shinning a flashlight on it to have a close look. Its like a reflection of something golden. It appears to be beneath the surface...
I havent actually gotten to testing it out to see if there is a problem with recording or playback yet.
 
i don't know, it looks to me like a relapped head. I don't think this is a brand new head. The little swivel in the pic, i don't think will affect anything. It should be fine
 
It doesn’t look exactly like a new TSR-8 head from what I can see. However I always hesitate to make any determination from photos, especially from just one angle. New Tascam heads for these units are a bit different than other heads. The center should come to more of a dull point rather than a half-circle shape. When these heads are relapped they are more rounded like the one in your photo.

However, I haven’t seen a brand new Tascam 8-track head for many years. The 38, 48, 58 and TSR-8 have the same heads. It’s possible they changed the design.

The sparkly stuff in your red circle looks like brass that was accidentally carried over from the edge into the business part of the head during relapping. Again, I can’t be sure from a photo, but if that’s what it is it would be not so good because of course brass is conductive and thus could bridge those elements that it touches.

How much did they charge you for the head? That could be another clue.
 
Back home I have a brand new spare TSR-8 head, which I can photograph if anyone is interested. However, I don't think it's ever been removed from its packing, so I'm a little leery of doing so...
 
I was charged $320.00 from JRF magnetics for the head and 65 to optically align it. I had called Teac and they wanted something like $312.00 for the new head. The one thing I am a little leary about is that the curvature of the radius seems to be a little off-center and towards the right side rather than dead center like I would expect.
I hate to have to cause a big ruckus if it is a relapped head but i would like to get what I paid for. I can just see it now...I call him and tell him that a bunch of people on a forum think I got shafted with a relapped head.
I can take some more pics but its very hard to get a good detailed image compareable to what ive seen.
 
One other thing Im not liking. I have put her all back together and listened to 2-3 songs for approximatly 10-15 minutes worth of tape going over the head and I can now already see a little keystoning going on. So if that keeps up I dont even think it was aligned properly...
Header.jpg
 
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OK, as I understand, you sent JRF your headstack, with the bad head and you agreed to have them purchase a brand new head for you, from TEAC, that they in turn used to replace the bad head, aligned it and sent you the head-stack back? Correct? Do you have any proof that JRF in fact put in that brand new head for you and that what you have now is not a relap? That head doesn't look right.
 
Cjacek,
Yeah you got the story right. the only thing I have from JRF is the invoice he made out for me, and a receipt where he charged my credit card. I have no proof either way that it is new.
I sent him an email with the 2 pics i posted here and he pretty much told me that it was new and that Tascam has never had a problem with their new heads before and that when it comes to the little scratches on the right hand side he inspects them so he didnt scratch it and that about the start of the keystoning Im seeing after only 15 minutes of play that there must be something in my tape path that is twisting the tape and I should check it.
I could post both mine and his emails if you guys think thats ok...
Im sure if I ask him for proof that the head is new or at least a receipt that hes just gonna pull out something from another head and say it was from mine. I wonder if I could send the pics to Tascam/TEAC and ask them if that looks like a brand new head?
 
Is it cool to post the email and response I got? I dont want to start a big war or anything but i would like to get a nice new head if thats what I paid for...
 
I have a bunch more good shots of the head I took. I put them all on Photobucket. Ill put the 2-3 best ones up here but I have more if anyone wants to take a look..
Brassy.jpg

P1050108.jpg

P1050105.jpg

P1050106.jpg

If anyone wants to look at all of them the Photobucket account is TascamHeads and the Password is mnmnmnmn
 
Cjacek,
about the start of the keystoning Im seeing after only 15 minutes of play that there must be something in my tape path that is twisting the tape and I should check it.

that sounds like it might be a reasonable assessment to me, did you have a chance to go through the service manual section on tape path adjustments? That can make a huge difference.
 
Very Strange

I just received the headstack for my MS-16 back from JRF and it looks beautiful. Years ago he did the record/play on my MSR-16 as well and that was beautiful. Anytime I have spoken with Mr.French on the phone he has been very friendly and willing to answer all my questions.
I agree that something doesn't look quite right if that is suppose to be a new head. I would call him again and tell him exactly how you feel. Talk it out, work it out .
So he replaced the record/play head ? Did he give you an inspection report for either your old head, new head or erase head ? You should have a before and after inspection report and also a report on approx head life left. 60%, 70% etc. Good Luck. Dave
 
To be fair...I did NOT call him. I emailed him along with the first 2 pics I posted here.
I really feel like shit when I post the pics of my "Brand New Head" on this site and just about everyone who has taken the time to look is telling me that they dont look like "New" Heads. Especially People Like Beck and Cjacek whos opinions on this I respect...
That means I wasted over 400 bucks (shipping and install) on a relapped head if that is what it is...
I have only emailed him 1 time and I believe I was not nasty at all and I was just asking what he thought of the pics. It did seem like he thought it was all normal but now that I think of it I dont think he gave a explaination for the brass reflections...But also he has been nothing but nice to me and has not been Nasty either. He just doesnt seem to think there is anything wrong.
I KNEW I SHOULDA BOUGHT THE HEAD FROM TEAC MYSELF...
At least then I would know if its a new head or not. I suppose i could always buy another one to compare and have on hand. Other than that I dont know how I can tell...
As you guys can tell this is really eating me up and I dont think Im gonna sleep well tonight...
I am including the 2 reports I got back from JRF. The First one is for the TSR-8 headstack...the one he worked on. The 2nd is from a spare 38-8 headstack I initially sent him as i was going to have him select the best of all these used heads and relapp that one and put it on the TSR-8. But after learning on here that I could still buy a new Head right from TEAC I called him and told him I was gonna get a new head and send it to him instead. Thats when he suggested I just buy it from him. I said sure as I figured that would be faster...
TSR-8Test001.jpg

38-8Test001.jpg
 
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