Tascam 38 issue - please help!

  • Thread starter Thread starter famous beagle
  • Start date Start date
famous beagle

famous beagle

Well-known member
Hey y'all,

Here's the deal. I bought a 38 about a year and a half ago. When I bought it, the guy had tape and demonstrated that all the functions worked (play, record on all tracks, FF, RW, etc.). However, in my year+ of owning it, I never got around to buying tape for it and using it because it was so expensive. (I get my analog fix with my Tascam 424MKIII 4-track.) Well, I finally decided to sell it because I needed the money for something I would use all the time: a Tele.

The buyer received it, and then he wrote this to me:

Hi- I'm having a heck of a hard time getting this thing to record.
Does the "PLAY" button work? If I only push play the little pinch
thing on the right side springs up correctly but then nothing
happens. No playing. Same for trying to record. The play button
does nothing. Am I doing something wrong. I have instruction
manual and new tape and reel and still nothing. REW and FF are
fine, but I can't record or playback.

Anything off the top of y'alls head that would cause this? I noticed that, in my pictures I took of it, the EDIT button is pushed in. Would this cause play and record to not work? I think I remember hearing/reading that at one time.

Thanks for any info on this.
 
The Edit button will disable the take up reel so that you can dump tape in the play mode. But if its off and there's still an issue, the capstan belt may be gone and in need of replacement if the capstan isn't spinning with the right tension arm up via a loaded tape on the machine or by lifting it with your finger

Cheers! :)
 
Thanks Ghost. I'm hoping it's the edit button that's causing the issue. I haven't heard back from him yet after suggesting that.
 
And if that ain't it it could just be that the capstan belt his clocked out.
 
From my similar experience, it's more than likely the belt. It's not difficult to replace, but if it happened to melt then the rubber cleanup ain't fun...
 
Thanks for the info y'all. Still no word back from the buyer, so we'll see what happens.
 
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