tascam 388 part needed

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Painful100

New member
Does anyone have a Record head for the tascam 388 they could sell me? I know some legends around here have something hah. Maybe even a new one they thought they would use some day? Hook a brother up :)
 
I can’t really tell anything regarding the wear or life of those heads from the pics. The dummy head could have been rotated, or the heads relapped. I don’t see anything that spells certain disaster, but there’s no way to know how far off that is without a proper head report. One of the pictures shows some unevenness to the wear pattern.

How much price-wise is reasonable? There really isn’t a market for this stuff, so it really comes down to how much you are willing to pay. They are rare, and the market for the 388 has gone silly high. So it seems people can ask a lot for a complete headblock assembly and not be insane. If I needed one in this day and age, like if I depended on my 388 and I knew verifiably my current headstack was dying, I can see myself paying $400 for one *with a head report*.
 
Understood on all counts. Thanks for your input. Ive read a lot your other tascam 388 related forums and content on here. Its been valuable stuff for me. Especially related to effects sends, etc.

So if you were interested, you would request the seller get a head report as part of the deal. What’s the best option/place to get the head report? Assuming you have to send it somewhere.
 
If it was me I wouldn’t gamble the $400 and would pay to have the head evaluated. JRF Magnetic Sciences is where you want it evaluated. I’m not sure what John charges nowadays for an evaluation...maybe $75? This is not something a lay-person can do. It takes specialized equipment and knowledge to be able to ascertain the wear on the coil tips and compare to the factory fresh tip depth. If the seller wanted $100 for the block I’d gamble that, based on what I see from the pics (which really means little). I’d try to add to my basis for taking the gamble by asking if there is any way to see anpoc of the lifter posts of the machine the block came from, but there are no garuantees with what the seller sends you on that either. So...I don’t know if that is any help or not. I just know $400 probably not unreasonable in the current market for a 388 headblock if it’s serviceable with decent life, but I’d want to take the mystery out of it and get an evaluation before I spent that money.

I don’t know what 388s are actually selling for, but between craigslist, reverb and eBay I see asking prices between $1500 and $2200. Wow.
 
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