Tascam 22-2

[RichieRich]

Hi all. My name is Rich. This weekend, I was in the garage and I found a TASCAM 22-2 up in the rafters. It was hidden on a piece of plywood where it couldn't be seen from below. Anyways, I've done a little research but still a bit lost about it. It has no cords/tape/reels so I don't even know if it works. So, here are my questions: Is it used for recording music at home, for mixing music or what? What kind of tape does it use? Is it worth the time and effort to restore it? Right now it appears just to be really dusty. I don't think it's been moved from the spot in the garage for a couple of decades. Thanks!

 

[A Reel Person]

The dust is your worst enemy.

The 22-2 uses 7" reels of 1/4" tape, and is usually factory set for Quantegy 407. A calibration could be done to set it to 457 tape,... which is 3db hotter than 407.

The 22-2 records in half-track stereo format, at either 7.5 or 15 ips. It was a budget mastering deck. It may be used for mixdowns or even for live recording, receiving input through either it's RCA line inputs on the back, or it's 1/4" phone plug mic inputs on the front.

Clean it up and see what it does. Hope for the best. The worst case scenario you might be looking at is if some of the buttons or pots are fouled by the dust, or perhaps the drive belt and rubber grommets may need replacing, but neither of these problems are hard to fix. You really don't know until you fire it up and test it!