Trovador98
New member
So before I got my Tascam 246, I found a 464 on Craigslist for a fair price. Everything seemed to be working fine, but the unit was pretty filthy and the capstan seemed to be making more noise than normal. I figured I'd be able to clean it up and replace the belt even though I'd never attempted such work.
When I got it home I gave the external bits a good cleaning and was able to play 20 year old master tapes at both 1x and 2x speeds. I used to record jam sessions at slow speed to preserve tape. It was a lot of fun but I really wanted to find a 246 unit like I had originally used. The 464 seemed cheap in comparison.
I had noticed a lot of speed warble however and the smell of burnt rubber after playing with it for a few hours. I figured the belt was toast and ordered one from eBay along with Deoxit D5 for some scratchy pots and F5 for sticky faders.
Opening the box was easy but I could already tell somebody had gotten into it before as there were some missing and mismatched screws. Pulling it open made me nervous because of all the delicate looking wires I had to disconnect...thankfully all of the clips pulled apart without breaking. Removing the tape transport system revealed the first clue...blue rubber shavings all over the place.
When I got it home I gave the external bits a good cleaning and was able to play 20 year old master tapes at both 1x and 2x speeds. I used to record jam sessions at slow speed to preserve tape. It was a lot of fun but I really wanted to find a 246 unit like I had originally used. The 464 seemed cheap in comparison.
I had noticed a lot of speed warble however and the smell of burnt rubber after playing with it for a few hours. I figured the belt was toast and ordered one from eBay along with Deoxit D5 for some scratchy pots and F5 for sticky faders.
Opening the box was easy but I could already tell somebody had gotten into it before as there were some missing and mismatched screws. Pulling it open made me nervous because of all the delicate looking wires I had to disconnect...thankfully all of the clips pulled apart without breaking. Removing the tape transport system revealed the first clue...blue rubber shavings all over the place.
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