Tascam service centers and repairs

[WhinyLittleRunt]

What is the general consensus about bringing reel-to-reel equipment to an authorized service center? Is it cheaper to buy a calibration tape and do the general upkeep myself or pay someone who knows what they're doing and be done with it?

BTW, the RMG 911 tape sheds like a mofo! I have to clean gobs of tape residue off the heads after a few passes back and fourth. Is that normal or is it because the machine is messed up somehow? I did demagnetize the heads...

 

[sweetbeats]

Where'd you buy the tape?

 

[jpmorris]

911 comes in various shades of brown. In my experience the darker it is, the better. The more red it looks, the more it will shed.

I have been stung fairly recently with the red tape, I'm not 100% sure if it was a crappy batch or NOS that somehow worked its way into the channel.

My recent bad one was labelled 0911B159408 34220. I replaced it with 153386 34220 which was okay, and as mentioned, considerably darker.

 

[fstrat76]

I am just experiencing this myself with the RMGI 911 and am hoping to return the tape since its still under warranty. Most of my issues seem to be the back coat shedding.

I have found, at least in my area, that its cheaper to get an MRL tape and to learn and perform maintenance and some repair on my Tascam 38 rather than take it into a so-called "authorized" repair service center. However, its somewhat time consuming in the beginning, but there's some great help on this forum. Check out the alignment and calibration sticky thread at the top of this forum section. A lot of good info in there.

 

[WhinyLittleRunt]

Where'd you buy the tape?

Got it from US Recording. When I say "shedding" I get a lot of the brown residue on the heads and guides just after a few passes. I figured maybe because it was new tape, but I don't know...

There is a service center sort-of local to me (The Audio Clinic) and I'm not sold yet on the idea of bringing it to them when it could be easy stuff to do and then I'll be beating my head against the wall after spending money! I'll have to check out the sticky - I have perused it a bit before I got my machine...

Most of my issues seem to be the back coat shedding

The Ampex 456 reel that I acquired did just that, and the RMGI is shedding on the opposite side. I expected the Ampex to do it because it was ancient and I was only using it as a test...

 

[Blue Jinn]

I think you have to make a cost/benefit and time analysis on DIY calibration. Some things there isn't a way (for me) to do at home, like tension adjustment and head alignment, I dont' have the teleommeter thingy (I know I don't have the term correct) nor at this time a scope. And the alignment tapes aren't cheap either. However, I think I have a receipt for service on my 38 for about $200 or so, and I don't know about tensioning, but head alignment shouldn't be an issue very often. And at this point, I have so damn many tape decks, that it is going to make economic sense for me to get the cal tapes.

 

[sweetbeats]

All good comments.

Like they said, look at the balance of your pocketbook and interest in the maintenance side of things. If you aren't going to moving the deck around calibration doesn't have to be done often, and, depending on the transport the setup of the tape path should be stable for a long time.

Once you have a tape deck calibrated then biasing, cleaning the tape and degaussing are really the main routine maintenance tasks, so chew on that.

Here's a suggestion: if you do take it somewhere to have it done, see if the technician will let you sit in on the process so you can see first-hand what goes on and then later that may help you decide if its time to invest in the tools and the time to shore up your education in the matter.

I decided early on to go full bore because I'm not close to any service centers and the closest one I had heard some bad reports..."Authorized Service Canter" does not mean they are qualified. Seriously. That may sound bad but for a lot of service centers they have little interest or care, at least often nowhere NEAR the magnitude we do, about open reel tape machines. I think there's a lot of "aw that's good enough" that goes on. So I wasn't comfortable with that and I've always liked knowing how to fix stuff I own (used to do in depth maintenance and repairs on cars I owned even up to doing a motor rebuild) so it was kind of up my alley.

 

[sweetbeats]

OH!

And on the RMGI tape, that's exactly what a reel of SM911 did to me, and if you got it from US Recording Media do follow through with contact to them and whatever their advice is. They should back it up and replace or get you in touch with the RMGI rep. Expect that they will have questions about your machine and the condition of the guides which is reasonable. You can't expet RMGI to replace tape being used on a machine with guides that look like a metal file right? That's what they are trying to flush out when they go through their questions, but if the tape is from a known questionable batch they should replace. This is what happened to me and they expedited a fresh reel to me and it worked wonderfully.

 

[WhinyLittleRunt]

"Authorized Service Center" does not mean they are qualified. Seriously. That may sound bad but for a lot of service centers they have little interest or care, at least often nowhere NEAR the magnitude we do, about open reel tape machines. I think there's a lot of "aw that's good enough" that goes on.

Well this is the part that scares me a little, because I personally work for an Authorized Service Provider of Apple Computer, amongst other things. I know that we are "authorized" by the manufacturer to work on their equipment, but do you know know many machines come in that some of the other guys look at and go "huh... never worked on one of these before"? I can personally vouch for my own level of care when I work on someone else's machine (a total reflection on the way I treat my own gear) but I know that's not the case for everyone, and I don't want to be the guy that brings it home and half of the case isn't even tightened back up (hint hint computer guys).

biasing, cleaning the tape and degaussing are really the main routine maintenance tasks, so chew on that.

Sorry for the ignorance, because I did browse the manual, but would the bias adjustment help if your outside tracks (like 1 and 8) are crummy sounding compared to 2-7? I can, little by little, get more test gear but if my major problem is a crummy sounding track and a dead track (1 and 8) I wonder if it would be more cost effective to bring it somewhere, and definitely sit down with the tech and watch!

I will contact US Recording about the tape too. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[fstrat76]

Sorry for the ignorance, because I did browse the manual, but would the bias adjustment help if your outside tracks (like 1 and 8) are crummy sounding compared to 2-7? I can, little by little, get more test gear but if my major problem is a crummy sounding track and a dead track (1 and 8) I wonder if it would be more cost effective to bring it somewhere, and definitely sit down with the tech and watch!

I will contact US Recording about the tape too. Thanks for the heads up!

This sounds eerily similar to the issues I'm having in the DIY alignment thread at top. Bias adjustments are on each channel. On mine, tracks 1, 8, and sometimes 2 are exhibiting odd behavior, drops, etc.

As of right now, I suspect its the tape that I am using. It seems to be shedding the back coating as I am removing a black tar-like substance after just minimal use, in addition to some minor oxide shedding which might be normal. I contacted US Recording and they put me in touch with RMGI. I will be trying a new tape as soon as I receive it to see if that solves the issues.

Anyway, contact US Recording and RMGI.

 

[jpmorris]

It seems to be shedding the back coating as I am removing a black tar-like substance after just minimal use, in addition to some minor oxide shedding which might be normal.

Ouch. I've never had that happen, just oxide shedding.