Anything Likely Wrong With a Radio-Station R2R?

  • Thread starter Thread starter stevieb
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stevieb

Just another guy, really.
No sooner do I post about converting a machine to half-track, when one shows up stupid low money. 1/4" TASCAM 32. Thing is, it came from a radio station. I have heard they get HEAVY use in that application- is that true? Any other problems I might encounter? What might be the most one might pay for such an animal, assuming work might need to be done on it to un-do all that (presumed) use?

Thanks.
 
Stevie,

I can't speak for that specific machine but having bought both my ATR-60 1" 16 trk and an Otari 5050 1/4" from a local radio station, I'd say contact the tech support guy(s) there and ask some questions and see if you can inspect the machine, also ask if they carried spare parts in case of break-downs. More often than not, R2Rs in these situations were through necessity kept in reasonable condition.

ChrisO :cool:
 
ausrock said:
More often than not, R2Rs in these situations were through necessity kept in reasonable condition.
Click to expand...
+1

It may have been heavily used but probably far more well kept and maintained than a home machine IMO.
 
There are the front line machines that get full use and full maint and then there are the backup machines that get no use and full maint....


--Ethan
 
Just look at the heads...I think the biggest thing with a machine that was in a pro install is likely to either be well-used or little used so its worth checking if something like that comes up IMO, and the heads will tell you whether it was the former or the latter.

The 48 and 58 I used to have came out of a video production house and they were both barely used.

My BR-20T also came from a video house and looks to have about, maybe 60% left on the heads and a scad of razor blade scratches on it. It was a mainline machine but it works y'know? And I got it with the remote and proper Tascam rack stand for $350 so...

Another note too is that a very well-worn machine may even have had a relap or new heads installed but the rest of the transport is high miles. Hard to see that all the time if the heads look really pretty but lifters are sledom replaced and in most cases can't be rotated to hide the wear (guides are easier to replace or rotate thus hiding the history of wear if the heads have been lapped and/or replaced), so lookit them things and see how they look.
 
stevieb said:
Yes, it is. Now I am concerned- selling for parts? Did he say if it was functional?

Damn ebay...
Click to expand...

Not totally sure. Here are the emails we exchanged
My question was,
Can you please post some pics of the head stack? Thanks
His response,
Hi, If you mean closeup pictures of the tape heads, I will do a few later today and email them to you, if you reply with your email address. larry

He did email the pics and I'm sorry but I deleted them before I read your post. The heads did look OK to me, but the deck was very dirty. It had Cobb webs and dirt stuck in the crevices inside the machine where the heads are. If I knew I would have kept them. I deleted after seeing how dirty it was. I'm looking for a deck that needs little to no work. I hope this helps.
 
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