How to open my Tascam 38

  • Thread starter Thread starter WarmJetGuitar
  • Start date Start date
Decided to go for the spare part machine as it's heads is in prime condition so it looks like a good future investment. I easily got the capstain motor and it's attached card - what is the card called? So now it's "just" a matter of changing the motor. Anything particular I should be aware of?
 
AFAIK that board is the capstan controller. What might be worth trying is swapping that first - unless it's hard-wired to the motor it should be easier to change than the motor itself, and if it is a drive transistor, it's probably going to be on that board.
 
Last edited:
Dude, you're a guru!
It's hard wired so I just change the whole thing. I'm a disaster with a soldering iron...
 
Ooooh no, not again... it looks really easy to change but the screws is old and stuck.
 
WarmJetGuitar said:
Dude, you're a guru!
Click to expand...
I wouldn't go that far. I've got the service manual and done a fair bit of work on my '32 and I soaked up a lot of stuff about the 30-series last time someone had a capstan problem on this board, but you're getting into territory that I haven't really explored myself. ;-)

Good luck with unscrewing the capstan motor, anyway. It is starting to sound like you don't have quite the right kind of screwdriver for the job, though - might be worth looking into getting a set so you have a variety of different head types. I have one with a narrow head that works wonders on most problem screws, but there are others which work far better with different kinds of screw.
 
I borrowed a set from a friend. It seems the trouble is my lack of experience combined with old, stock screws that have never been removed. It took less than five minutes to get the capstain motor out of the spare part machine with the same screwdrivers.
We tried with a automatic screwdriver today, still unsuccessfull. Bloody hell, don't know what I'm gonna do.
 
Have you established what's wrong with the parts machine? If the capstan motor really, really won't come out, is it feasible to turn the parts machine into the working one?
 
Various cards is broken - I don't know which. So I'm considering it but the risk of fucking up something big time is a factor too. Especially because it seems there's lots of hardwired stuff between the cards. Maybe I should just wait a bit and bring it to a pro repair guy.
 
The sweet old machine is now working - and sounds great :)
Thanks for all your patience and invaluable advice. I owe you big time.

She seems a bit moody but who wouldn't be that after a decade in a dark room? Hopefully it will like psychedelic rock and weird drones more... knock on wood...
 
How did you get the capstan motor off in the end?

Also, what do you mean by 'moody'? Be aware that the relays in these things can go strange - symptoms for that typically revolve around the channels not switching between playback and sync/record properly, sometimes in a temperamental fashion.
 
Removed the metal thing near the motor - it was just there to hold a bunch of cables going to the front panel/transport functions. With that gone I could use a plier more effectively and suddenly the thing went off. The new capstain was quite straight forward to put in place.
Gave me an instant rush when it finally started running in play mode!

By "moody" I meant that after the machine started running it had a bit of speed issues but after I turned off the pitch shifter and cleaned the tape path again the problem now seems gone. A functional 38 and a parts machine for 380 dollars. Not that bad.

Thanks for all the great answers - this forum is truly awesome!

EDIT: for other noobs trying this or something similar - make quite accurate notes about where different screws belong. I mostly forgotten this during the process and made the whole thing much harder and messy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top