Yamaha MT1X - Can only hear tracks 3 & 4 - minor or major repair?

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Ego_Shredder

New member
I've just received a Yamaha MT1X from Ebay and it is in very good condition, apart from the fact that when I play my old four track recordings made on a Yamaha MT100 MkII, I can only hear tracks three and four, but tracks one and two are not playing anything and the LED meters do not show activity (they do work otherwise). I have also tried the individual four phono track outputs on the rear, and they do not work on outputs one and two. The faulty tracks are not completely silent, but if you raise the track faders to the maximum you can only hear the track bleed from three and four; however I can hear NOTHING from one and two, not even a faint sound of what is meant to be playing.

My tapes are in excellent condition and I have a lot of experience with these type of machines, and with multitrack recording in general. So before I approach the seller to resolve this, I thought I would see if it could potentially be a cheap fix. I've had a very quick peek inside but there are many ribbon cables preventing me from lifting the whole top case off, and I do not fancy just yet having to work out what goes back where. At first glance things look healthy enough and no leaking or blown capacitors etc. I cannot see anything disconnected either but there could be.

The Ebay seller states in his description:

Yamaha MT1X Multitrack Cassette Recorder..CASSETTE DECK FUNCTIONS WORKS WELL BUT UNTESTED WITH AMPLIFIER/SPEAKERS-NO WIRES..MANUAL AND POWER SUPPLY INCLUDED..SPECIFICATIONS TO FIND IN GOOGLE
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and he accepts returns within 14 days, but I have to pay the return postage. The item was £32 and the postage £12, so I am hoping a cheap fix might work out less than returning it.


Kind regards, Ian :(
 
I'd return it unless you want to go on a hunting expedition. I'm assuming you have inspected and cleaned the heads yes? If you've done that, and you still have essentially no output from tracks 1&2 I suspect an amplifier electronics problem.
 
Thanks and just as I thought. Yes I did clean the heads with 100% isopropyl alcohol before first use. One other thing is I tried plugging in a bass guitar to test the inputs, and all four channels worked. I did not dig out a blank tape and try recording though; probably not much point. I suppose it is best to lose £12 than £44 in total.
 
Okay just tried doing a quick recording using all four tracks. Track one and two.....zilch....nothing. Track three and four very noisy (hiss and poor quality in general) and also very low recording levels, despite driving the input gain meter strongly; a total mismatch between the signal going in and the one on the tape. Track three tends to affect the adjacent track four, by triggering the LED gain meters and track four is louder than three, even though track three is interfering with it. I also noticed that when the cassette deck cover is closed shut, it causes the LED gain meters to react on tracks three and four (I've never seen that behaviour on any other multitrack recorder before). So it seems this Yamaha is one sick puppy indeed.
 
Quick update: I managed to get a full refund and even mysteriously avoided paying the stated return postage charges. I've been looking at heaven knows how many four track machines over the past few weeks, and the best were mostly the Tascam models, e.g. Porta Two HS and Normal version; 424 MkII and III; Vestax MR300 and many more. One other thing I noticed immediately after returning my faulty model, was the seller appeared to put it back on Ebay for sale, with the same photo and no revised details to say it is faulty; at present someone has already bid on it. Yamaha MT1X Multitrack Cassette Recorder Untested | eBay * Ebay UK Item Number 152195024416 *


Anyway I stumbled across a nice looking Yamaha MT3X for £60 and FREE postage from an Ebay UK seller that does house clearances. For some reason it did not show up in my usual Ebay searches, so after sleeping on it for a night, I decided to take the plunge and buy it. Today it arrived and it is in pretty much MINT condition both in appearance and in use. Whover owned this took great care of it and there is not even the slightest mark or scratch on it, plus the playback and recording heads are totally clean and like brand new. I gave the capstan roller a clean and got some tape deposits from that, but nothing much and even that now sparkles.


I bought it to transfer my old 1990s recordings onto my home studio computer based setup, so I could archive and maybe remix and remaster them in due course. However there is something very organic, natural and appealing about recording to tape and I may have some fun making some new recordings.
 
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