Tascam 38 Heads an opinion on their state please if possible!

[ed_thebear]

Hello,
Firstly can I say that I hope I have done this correctly as I am not used to posting things on Forums
I have had this Tascam 38 with me for a few days now and as suggested by you folks I have gone through it and cleaned everything! The heads were as suggested with an Apex tape on board and covered in gue, that has now been removed!
I have included some images of the heads which I hope are clear enough for some sort of opinion on the state of them from you all. I can see that there is wear, but I don't know enough to tell if they have had it or not. Also my eyes are not so good these days. Hope you can help. I have a new tape & demagnetizer on order (ever the optimist!)
Ed

 

[fgonza2]

so, the pictures are not that good. use a blank shed of paper to control reflections, and find a way to avoid blurry focus. From what i can see there is some "keystoning" meaning that there is more wear at the bottom of the head than on the top. (trapezoid shape) Meaning the heads azimuth is off, so the tape puts more pressure on the bottom than on top wearing out faster the head on the lower part. The heads may still have some good life ahead. Longer term you may want to get the heads "relapped" to correct this problem and also you want them physically aligned properly to avoid this problem to occur again.