miroslav
Cosmic Cowboy
OK...besides all kinds of other stuff going on the last few weeks...I also spent a lot of time overhauling the MX-80 I purchased recently (as many of you will recall).
I basically pulled just about every board and connector, cleaned/de-oxidized everything, cleaned and cleaned some more, inside and out, every nook-n-cranny, and finally got the machine about as good as it can be for it's age. I even gave the outside a fresh coat of paint to cover up lots of small scuffs-n-scratches, so now when you are standing there looking at it...it looks almost factory fresh.
I also went over much of the mechanical stuff, checking all screws/bolts and whatnot...and finally I replaced all the burned out bulbs on the VU meters and a couple on the transport switches.
This past weekend I finished wiring a 30-foot, 48-channel snake for it and also tied it to a patchbay (what PITA work!)...so now the deck is hooked into my studio rig and all I have left to do is the basic electronic alignment, for use with a particular tape.
Oh...I also went through every reel of tape I got with the deck (plus I already purchased a few more reels over the last few weeks), so now I have 32 good reels of tape for it (7-996, 6-456, 19-499)...and I only ended up with 6 bad reels of 456, but I'll hang on to it in case I every really need it and want to do the old shake-n-bake for a single use session, which would be OK since I dump to DAW and don't really need to archive on the tape.
I haven't checked it yet...but am I correct in assuming that the 396 and 499 should be almost interchangeable...though I will still just recalibrate for each particular tape when needed.
I'll probably finally get to record some tracks in the next couple of weeks, as I still have some other stuff going on...but now the deck it ready to do some work...and here's a few post-overhaul pics.
The new meter bulbs are a bit brighter than the stock ones, but I didn't want to replace the stock ones that were still working. So wherever I had to replace bulbs on both sides of the meter...you can see that those meters are a bit brighter with two new bulbs...but I'm sure in time I'll replace all the stock ones in turn as they burn out...no big deal...
...I still have over 70 spare bulbs!
I basically pulled just about every board and connector, cleaned/de-oxidized everything, cleaned and cleaned some more, inside and out, every nook-n-cranny, and finally got the machine about as good as it can be for it's age. I even gave the outside a fresh coat of paint to cover up lots of small scuffs-n-scratches, so now when you are standing there looking at it...it looks almost factory fresh.
I also went over much of the mechanical stuff, checking all screws/bolts and whatnot...and finally I replaced all the burned out bulbs on the VU meters and a couple on the transport switches.
This past weekend I finished wiring a 30-foot, 48-channel snake for it and also tied it to a patchbay (what PITA work!)...so now the deck is hooked into my studio rig and all I have left to do is the basic electronic alignment, for use with a particular tape.
Oh...I also went through every reel of tape I got with the deck (plus I already purchased a few more reels over the last few weeks), so now I have 32 good reels of tape for it (7-996, 6-456, 19-499)...and I only ended up with 6 bad reels of 456, but I'll hang on to it in case I every really need it and want to do the old shake-n-bake for a single use session, which would be OK since I dump to DAW and don't really need to archive on the tape.
I haven't checked it yet...but am I correct in assuming that the 396 and 499 should be almost interchangeable...though I will still just recalibrate for each particular tape when needed.
I'll probably finally get to record some tracks in the next couple of weeks, as I still have some other stuff going on...but now the deck it ready to do some work...and here's a few post-overhaul pics.
The new meter bulbs are a bit brighter than the stock ones, but I didn't want to replace the stock ones that were still working. So wherever I had to replace bulbs on both sides of the meter...you can see that those meters are a bit brighter with two new bulbs...but I'm sure in time I'll replace all the stock ones in turn as they burn out...no big deal...
...I still have over 70 spare bulbs!
