Wow congrats on scoring that amazing deck!
I have an AG350 full track machine that I use a fair bit (mostly for echo so far--haven't had a chance to mix to mono yet). I'd say it's the nicest sounding machine I have. Even the line-amp seem to a subtle euphonic tone.
Out of curiosity, does this machine have a sel-synch?
I know ... I just got it up and running tonight, and I was running some stuff to it. It has 'that' sound I've been after ... even before fully setting it up. The AG-350 is actually the same electronics unit as this one, mated with a 300-series transport.
Yes, it has Sel-Sync. If you click on the link to the photos in my first post, the Sel-Sync panels are actually above the transport ... they take up as much space as 2 electronic units! The 8 channels are to the left ... they are supposed to be racked. I just bought a rack so I'm waiting on that too. The Sel-Sync sounds pretty crazy ... like full on mid-range!
Anyway, I got a bunch of (mostly bad) 1" tape on eBay for $12 (+30 shipping). Lots of good take up reels. One was advertised as Scotch 206 but it's kind of funky ... slows the deck down to a halt but doesn't really leave any residue. I thought that was strange I'm gonna guess it's actually 226 or 250. Most of the tape is '70s-'80s 456, so I'm not going to even bother attempting to use those. Luckily, there is one reel of Agfa 468 that runs nicely. Will probably set it up for that ... is RMGI making 1" 468? I really don't want to use 911, but 1" tape is so hard to find.
Anyway, there are a couple quirks (channel 1 doesn't pass audio, it comes in intermittently distorted), and the capstan needs to be adjusted for correct speed, possibly a couple things changed out in there (it was an indirect drive with a rubber flywheel ... I guess the rubber might need to be replaced to get stable speed). Has a bit of a subtle low hum when recording, so I'll have to work that out too.
But really, I'm surprised it's actually working ok ... overall, it actually performs alright !