Trade 2 repairable Tascam 688's plus ATS-500 for one working 688?

R

RunForHelp

New member
What I need: One working Tascam 688.
What I have to trade: Two non-working Tascam 688's and a working ATS-500 Synchronizer.

Hi everyone. I have two Tascam 688 machines in overall good condition, a few issues. They haven't been used in a long time. I also have a Tascam ATS 500 Synchronizer with all the necessary cables.

I do not use the machines anymore, but here is the problem. I have a ton of old recordings that I want to transfer to digital. I've been doing DAW recording for years, but I need to have a reliable working 688 to make the transfers. Then I'd like to keep the unit as a mixer because of its programmable routing.

I'm looking for some ideas here...

What I need: One working Tascam 688.
What I have to trade: Two non-working Tascam 688's and a working ATS-500 Synchronizer.

So, I'd ship all 3 units to somebody and expect a working 688 in return. I would even consider waiting for somebody to fix one of my 688's and send it back to me.

Anybody willing?

If I remember correctly, both 688's have some payback issues (motor issues) and one of them has at least one channel not working as well (or at least flaky). These 688's were hardly ever transported and are in general good shape for their age. They were kept in climate controlled, non-smoking areas.

I'd be happy to upload images of all 3 or any more info that is requested.

I am open to other ideas as well. Just for the record I'm also looking for a solid 8 channel digital interface (USB or Firewire) that plays well with Windows. So if anybody has any creative ideas other than what I have suggested please let me know.

Thanks.
 
RunForHelp said:
I am open to other ideas as well. So if anybody has any creative ideas other than what I have suggested please let me know.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Also keep an eye out for a decent/cheap 238/238S or 488/488mkII.
You should be able to at least use the mixer section of one of your 688's with a 238...and I've popped tapes that were made in my 688's into my 488mkII's before without hearing any difference...and vice versa.

There's no possible way to put the 2 688's together and make one good one??
Are both motors shot?
I think if I was in your situation,..that's what I would try to do.
 
Vessel2020, thanks for the reply. I came here because it looks like there are some people here into fixing these cool machines. But I myself am not qualified to tackle it. I was thinking that if somebody was good at fixing these they might be willing to fix one of mine and send it back to me in exchange for keeping the other plus the ATS 500 as payment.

I'm not convinced I'd be happy with the results of play back on another machine, even if it was technically the same type of heads, but it is something I hadn't considered, so I will keep it in mind. Thanks!

The other idea I had is giving somebody one of the 688's and the ATS-500 in exchange for making digital transfers of my tapes to a hard drive that I would provide.

You asked specifically about the motors...I suspect they are. Seems this is something that goes on most of them. I believe they both started to "slip" at some point.
 
can you check if it has a description of the pinout of the connectors and a description of the serial protocol. Maybe a scan of the table of contents. ? For your 688 there are many people in your area that can probably fix it.

thanks
 
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