Tascam TSR8 pinch roller rubber turns to gunk, replacement advice.

trancedental

New member
My TSR8 pinch roller rubber has turned to soft & sticky gunk & I need a replacement.

Seems that Ebay listings for Tascam OEM pinch rollers are expensive, & might suffer in future from the exact same problems that mine & many others have had.

So it's a choice between Terry's rubber rollers, but with postage at £30 with the total cost being even more than the Athan Corp brand new 1/2" TSR8 pinch roller.

NEW PINCH ROLLER TASCAM 1/2" TSR-8, MSR-16, 38 48 42B WITH BEARINGS (ATHAN) | eBay

TASCAM MSR-16 TSR-8 38 48 REBUILT 1/2" PINCH ROLLER EXCHANGE | eBay

Seems that the Athan roller is the best deal, but I've emailed Terrys for a quote for a refurbished roller.

Has anyone used Athans rollers?
 
I bought one for my MSR 16 (same roller as the TSR8)
Perfect. It's a brand new roller. It can take a while because the part comes from Japan. My old one will be sent to Terry. Then I'll always have a spare.
:)
Edit:; mine isn't an Athens. Mine came from a different seller. Still, it's brand new and i cant tell it apart from the original.
 
I'm running my Otari with an Athan roller, and that's working very nicely.

I got one for the A807 as well - that was less good since it jammed on the pinch roller shaft, making it almost impossible to remove the deck faceplate without a bearing puller, which I do not have. On the A807 you need to be able to do this to set the pinch roller up, so I was rather unimpressed. I think I damaged it in my attempts to remove the damned thing, and am currently using a NagraVox roller from Australia. I might try another Athan one once I have a bearing puller.

From the description in the link you've given, Athan's TSR-8 roller will do exactly the same thing, so be careful.

As for Terry, does he take paypal these days? 5 years ago I approached him but it went nowhere because he wanted to use a money order or some similar payment method which is forgotten in the UK and caused the relevant organisations to look at me as if I was from Mars. The post office told me to go the bank, the bank told me to go to the post office and the rollers are still in their box waiting for me to decide what to do with them.
 
OK Thanks for the advice JP I'm going for Terrys rollers. Don't like the prospect of the roller getting stuck on the spindle shaft! Will send the pinch roller tomorrow & make the payment.
 
I emailed him about one of mine. He's headed off on a vacation. He told me to get a hold of him around Oct 15 and see if he's caught up..... Just a heads up... it could be a while......
 
And worth the wait if you can afford the down-time. Terry has always been prompt, stood behind his work 100%, and does beautiful work.
 
OK Thanks for the advice JP I'm going for Terrys rollers. Don't like the prospect of the roller getting stuck on the spindle shaft! Will send the pinch roller tomorrow & make the payment.

Let me know how it goes. Like I say, I have a few rollers that could do with being rebuilt at some point.
 
I have used Terry a few times, great rollers, he did let me use Paypal as I was overseas, but I agreed to pay all the fees.

Alan.
 
Yup that rubber conditioner is pure crap. Used it once years ago wnd it turned a perfectly roller to a gummy mess.
Mild dish soap for cleaning has always worked for me.
 
Terrys re-furbished pinch roller has arrived back & is now working on my TSR-8!

One minor problem on my machine, is that my channel 4 signal disappears when DBX is switched on, maybe a problem with the channel card which I'll have to check when time allows!

Or has anyone got any idea of what causes this weird problem as all other channels work fine, DBX on or off!
 
I would:

1. Re-seat amp cards and dbx cards (if applicable) and if that doesn't resolve the issue...
2. Swap an amp card and see if the problem follows the card, and if the machine has separate dbx cards do a swap with those to see if the problem follows the card.

I love a fresh roller from Terry! :D
 
I think the DBX is integrated. If reseating doesn't help, and the problem definitely moves with the card, I can probably spare one from my parts machine.
 
Thanks Guys! I seem to remember a few years it being the same problem & channel before, it started working fine after I left the machine on a few hours. Could be until Xmas before I get a real chance to look inside.
 
I think it's a different card to the record/playback card, maybe mounted from the other side of the machine? I may be talking rubbish as it's 20 years since I owned one.

However sometimes just moving the cards around fixes these problems by breaking the oxide on the terminals.

Alan.
 
I think it's a different card to the record/playback card, maybe mounted from the other side of the machine? I may be talking rubbish as it's 20 years since I owned one.
However sometimes just moving the cards around fixes these problems by breaking the oxide on the terminals.
Alan.

Yeah, looking at the service manual this morning I can only see the 8 channel cards with no daughterboards. They are quite dense circuitry, and the DBX-related pots look like they're all down one end so I would assume the DBX is onboard.
 
Glad you got the roller replaced. I recently bought one for $80 on eBay to fix my TSR8. I'm just glad they still make these.
 
I swapped the channel cards around & the problem followed the card, looks like the DBX chip & encoder trimmers are by top side left (component side). I've re soldered the relay connections just in case, part link below.

https://uk.farnell.com/omron-electr...us-12dc/relay-signal-spdt-30vdc-2a/dp/9949178

Another relay, I'm not sure if this one is connected to the DBX area? I'll re-flow the solder connections on this one.

SY-12W-K Fujitsu | Mouser United Kingdom


The 3pin molex from the relay to the dbx section is fine. It would help If I could find my service manual!

EDIT: DBX calibration, looks like I also need a function generator, AF oscillator & an attenuator, got everything else, it appears that the cards are calibrated outside the machine. I really need to get this channel card working as I calibrated the levels before I sold my alignment tape.
 
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The DBX 1252 VCA looks like it has tarnished / rusty legs, I replaced a disintegrated resistor on this rec / playback PCB a few years back when it wasn't working, they are carbon film & there might be others out of spec? There seems to have been some fluid that got onto this card. I've tried to clean it up with isopropyl alcohol, to see if I can get the VCA back.

So far no luck, here's the switching DBX circuit schematic.


dbx swich schematic.PNG


U6 DBX 1252 VCA does the noise reduction

U10 is a 4way switch for DBX on/off, signal works fine when switched out.

U3 A NEC 4570C opamp before above switch works but the output U3 B is situated just before the DBX 1252. Also U4A opamp 4570C takes the VCA signal afterwards before the switch circuit ends.

So either the U3 / U4 opamps & / or DBX 1252 could be faulty / or any of the components in that section?
 
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