K
kkeydel
New member
Hi all,
I'm the original owner of a Tascam TSR-8 which had been sitting in it's box for about the last 20 years. I have four old reels of recordings of friends, including one who is deceased that I wanted to convert to digital. Unfortunately, I used the Ampex 456 tape and am now suffering with the sticky shed syndrome.
---- TRANSPORT WON'T RUN --------
Last night I was re-winding the tapes "tails out" to get a clean wind prior to baking them. I re-routed the tape away from the heads and pinch roller, taped up the tension knobs so the reels would run and pressed Play. Everything worked beautifully until I foolishly began moving the tension knobs to adjust the speed. Suddenly, the transport stopped, all of the LEDs lit up (as if the machine were re-initializing itself) and wouldn't play again. If I pressed play (after the LEDs went out), the transport would jerk in the direction of play, but the brakes would suddenly apply, and it would stop, lighting all of the LEDs again. This also happens with REW and FF.
---- TAPE ROUTED OVER HEADS -----------
I re-routed the tape over the heads, thinking that it would give the correct tension "signal", but the same thing happened. Frustrated and tired, I kept trying different positions of the tension knobs, and suddenly, the transport came to life, playing the tape as it should. Unfortunately, in this way, I'm losing some oxide to the heads which I promptly clean. But only then and one other time does it run. Since then, I've managed to get the one tape rewound using the transport, but cannot get it to run consistently. It acts like there is one "sweet spot" in the tension adjustment, but I can't seem to find it again.
----UNLOADED REELS----
I have more luck if I try to run the transport without any reels loaded. If I hold the tension knobs in different positions, the transport runs (REW, FF, PLAY) like it should. Once the reels are loaded - it jerks and stops again.
Does anyone know of anything I can do? Is this machine so computerized that it processes these tension values and stores a value that prevents the transport from running? I'm looking forlornly at reels of tape that I may have to send to a re-mastering service $$$. I've searched this issue all over the web, but there doesn't seem to be much information about it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Kurt
I'm the original owner of a Tascam TSR-8 which had been sitting in it's box for about the last 20 years. I have four old reels of recordings of friends, including one who is deceased that I wanted to convert to digital. Unfortunately, I used the Ampex 456 tape and am now suffering with the sticky shed syndrome.
---- TRANSPORT WON'T RUN --------
Last night I was re-winding the tapes "tails out" to get a clean wind prior to baking them. I re-routed the tape away from the heads and pinch roller, taped up the tension knobs so the reels would run and pressed Play. Everything worked beautifully until I foolishly began moving the tension knobs to adjust the speed. Suddenly, the transport stopped, all of the LEDs lit up (as if the machine were re-initializing itself) and wouldn't play again. If I pressed play (after the LEDs went out), the transport would jerk in the direction of play, but the brakes would suddenly apply, and it would stop, lighting all of the LEDs again. This also happens with REW and FF.
---- TAPE ROUTED OVER HEADS -----------
I re-routed the tape over the heads, thinking that it would give the correct tension "signal", but the same thing happened. Frustrated and tired, I kept trying different positions of the tension knobs, and suddenly, the transport came to life, playing the tape as it should. Unfortunately, in this way, I'm losing some oxide to the heads which I promptly clean. But only then and one other time does it run. Since then, I've managed to get the one tape rewound using the transport, but cannot get it to run consistently. It acts like there is one "sweet spot" in the tension adjustment, but I can't seem to find it again.
----UNLOADED REELS----
I have more luck if I try to run the transport without any reels loaded. If I hold the tension knobs in different positions, the transport runs (REW, FF, PLAY) like it should. Once the reels are loaded - it jerks and stops again.
Does anyone know of anything I can do? Is this machine so computerized that it processes these tension values and stores a value that prevents the transport from running? I'm looking forlornly at reels of tape that I may have to send to a re-mastering service $$$. I've searched this issue all over the web, but there doesn't seem to be much information about it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Kurt