This may be a dumb question, but....

[federationofide]

the output of the tape deck was going into a mixer which was then going into my mbox and being monitored/captured in ProTools

 

[federationofide]

The person I purchased it from (who isn't being very helpful) said :

"Everything is working fine on the machine and in good order.The gauges on the Tascam 38 being a recording device are for signal input only.They tell you how strong the signal is coming to them, not how strong the signal is leaving the machine.The signal coming from the tascam 38 would be measured by the next device or mixer"

Is it correct that once I have my Tascam M-30 mixer hooked up that I would be seeing the VU meters move on playback?

 

[Lt. Bob]

I can't speak for the mixer but every R2R I've ever had, the meters moved on recording AND playback.

What you're describing though ...... are you SURE you have the correct side of the tape against the heads?
Having that wrong would create the exact symptoms you're describing.

Also, I asked earlier but I think it got overlooked in the flood of suggestions .... is it possible one of the lifters is sticking and holding the tape off the head a little bit when recording or playing back?

 

[SteveM]

"The gauges on the Tascam 38 being a recording device are for signal input only.They tell you how strong the signal is coming to them, not how strong the signal is leaving the machine.

This sentence is completely false. While recording you have the input signal and while playing back you have the output signal on the meters. In the 38 the level are fixed. Unless he meant when in record mode only, but it's a pretty confusing way of explaining anything.

 

[federationofide]

Hi, yes the lighter side of the tape is the side that is facing the recording heads. It doesn't appear that anything is sticking. The levels move up and the tape gets pushed against the heads