Reel-to-Reel not recording

  • Thread starter Thread starter khill
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khill

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Ok, so obviously I am new to all this stuff, but I can't help but think this shouldn't be so difficult. I bought a Fostex Model 80 off craigslist for a good price. It looks clean, no damage, it's in really good shape. The guy gave me about 7 tapes to use, some of which have things he recorded on them. I follow the directions to record, all the meters light up and show that sound is getting to the recorder, but when I go to play it back, there is nothing. If I play the tapes he already had stuff on, it works fine.

If I try to record over what he had, when I play it back, tracks, say 2-8 play fine, but if I recorded on track 1 there is nothing. His stuff is gone and what I did isn't there.

Am I a moron for not being able to get this to work? I hope so, I would rather that than have bought a broken machine.

I would really apprecite any suggestions. If I am being to vague let me know, like I said, I'm pretty new to all of this.

Thanks
 
Have you cleaned the heads (esp. the recording head) ?

May seem like a no brainer, but I got a Technics 1506 years ago for half of what the guy wanted because the heads were dirty (and he didn't know he had to clean them ... :p ).

Pure isopropyl alcohol (90%) - NOT rubbing alcohol.

Good luck.
 
No I hadn't tried that. I guess I didn't try that because I would think if they were dirty it would still work, just sound bad.
 
Naah, it can prevent channels from recording or playing back. Each channel on the head may be only microns wide (depending on number of channels). Doesn't take much to lose a channel.
I used to work on 24 channel voice loggers, and we cleaned the heads and recorded test tone every 24 hours at tape change. Don't want to be losing a channel during a plane crash ... :eek:
Cheers,
Mike
 
Well I took a little while and cleaned all the heads and everything. They were pretty dirty so I was hopeful that it was going to work once it was all cleaned off, but nothing. It's still doing the same thing.

The meters are lighting up when I push record, but nothing on playback.. :mad:
 
It would seem the record head isn't working properly. The meters are moving so the input section is ok. The old stuff plays so the playback head and output section are ok.

You probably need a new record head.
 
Damn...I turned it off every other time accept that last time lol. That was all it was. Thanks for all your help guys. This board is great, there is so much reading I have to do on here.

See ya around...hopefully with no more stupid questions though.
 
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