Tascam 38 State Of These Heads? Help Please!

[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

 

[Victory Pete]

Hi
They do have some wear, An audio alignment will tell if they are still in spec. You could always get them relapped here. Head relapping. As a general rule the wear can extend to the end of the "gutters". The gutters are the 2 channels on each side of the head. The high frequencies on the edge tracks are the first to go.

VP

 

[Beck]

It’s very difficult to tell by photos because of flash glare and focus problems. Something to look for when evaluating tape heads is to look at the lifters and guides in the tape path. The lifters and guides in this pic have significant flat spots, so we can tell the machine has seen some use. Photos from a side angle might help, but honestly even a relapping tech will not make a definitive assessment from photos.

That being said, they don’t look bad, but it’s difficult to get an accurate picture of the wear patterns.

 

[A Reel Person]

Heads look good there.

Minimum to average wear, tho' I'll agree it's a little hard to tell in the photo.

 

[ed_thebear]

Thank you all so very much. I certainly feel better about them now than I did. I agree about the photos. The camera is new but when I have had some more practice I will take some more and upload them for your views!
Ed