MKII 488 problem here...anyone have ideas?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Veronique 65
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Veronique 65

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Hi, this is my first time posting to this forum.
I have a Tascam MKII 488 8-track which for several years has had an insurmountable (at least for me) problem: any track I try to record on it, and all past tapes made on this machine, sounds severely muffled and has almost no volume. If I recorded it at +3 db, it will play at around -5. I've tried repeatedly cleaning the heads, capstan and pinch roller with isopropyl alcohol and rubber cleaner, respectively. I've cleaned out the tape bay itself with alcohol on a Q-tip and all the usual things. the tape heads don't seem to be misaligned or damaged in any way. These measures have had no effect, so apparently the problem is not with the tape head assembly. This machine works fine otherwise, and I could really use it for the composing and recording work I'm doing. Does anyone have any ideas as to what might be causing this issue? Thanks!
 
Is the tape OK? Is it the correct formulation for the machine? I think the 488 uses chrome tape?

If the tape is a cheap brand of standard formulation this is what you are describing.

Also is the noise reduction switch in on record and playback?

Alan.
 
Hi Alan! Thank you so much for your feedback. I've always used the same kind of tapes--plain TDKs, usually--for years in this thing with no issue whatsoever. this happened very suddenly. One day the tapes played fine, the next day they were muffled with no volume. It's something mechanical or electronic. Normally I record with dbx on and play with it off, and I've tried it all ways without success. Thank you for your response.
 
Although I suppose i could try playing a chrome tape in it and see what happens, I do have a few. Maybe it's rebelling against the non-chrome ones after all these years.
 
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