Tascam 388 appreciation, celebration and setup thread

frilyd

frilyd

New member
OK. I am now the proud owner of a Tascam 388, one of quite few in Norway, I would guess.

[brief pause to receive congratulations, ovations and envious stares] :D

I came upon it by chance, and bought it for NOK 1800 incl. shipping - I'll reveal to you that this sum equals 296 USD or 208 EUR at the time of writing. Even though the capstan belt needs replacing, and the whole surface of the unit is a bit grimey and dirty, I consider this a good deal (remember: This is Norway, everything is expensive).

I'll post now and then as I progress in cleaning up, replacing the capstan belt, and putting the 388 into use - expect next post some time over the weekend. For now, I'll just stop blabbering on about my lovely new machine, and give you a photo instead:

dsc_0126.jpg
If all goes well, this is what I will use for recording. Period.
 
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sweet man. good luck with getting it up and running. hope you have a lot of fun recording with it. i know sweetbeats will be able to give you some help on it if you run into to problems. he's hardcore on his restorations :)
 
Yes, Sweetbeats gave me in-depth help on a Fostex model 80. It (ie. the heads) turned out to be beyond repair, so I managed, without anyone noticing, to sneak it back to the depths of the local radio station damp musty basement storeroom from whence it came. But that is another story altogether. The heads on the 388, on the other hand, look good!
 
I finally had time to look my new 388 over...

So, this Saturday, it's been Mr. 388 and me. I have dutifully removed all knobs, washed them (just like doing the dishes!) and cleaned the surface - a time-consuming work not requiring much skill, and thereby leaving my thoughts to drift...

While cleaning away, probably using more q-tips on the 388 than I use on my person for a year, I thought that I am quite privileged: I am allowed to spend time on a machine from 1983, my actions being completely unimportant and irrelevant to anything but my own enjoyment. Cleaning a Tascam 388 doesn't do anything for world peace or the progress of the human race - but I intensely enjoy the very much household-like work of removing dirt and dust from well-built analogue equipment from the nineteen eighties.

I am a rather normal man. I do housework, also without being asked to do so, and I don't object to washing down the bathroom. But I doubt if you will find me vacuum cleaning the living-room or dusting the shelves with the interest, determination and attention to detail with which I cleaned the 388 :-)

After the surface cleaning, I removed the backplate and had my suspicions confirmed: The capstan belt was loose, and also too slack. I had already (via Ebay) purchased a new one, and installing it was a simple matter of removing the flywheel bracket and putting on the new belt. And of course, the capstan now rolls :o

As I write, I am in the process of thoroughly cleaning the tape path. I have a demagnetiser and isopropyl alcohol, and will clean and demagnetise before putting on any tape. The innards of the machine were very clean, the heads look good, and it doesn't look like anything is out of joint. Therefore, I kindly ask those of you who had the strength to read all my rant, for an advice:

Is there anything more I should do before trying the 388? I may not wait for your good advice, because I find it increasingly difficult to wait :-)

Oh. I am happy to have this heavy piece of equipment in the house!
 
good story!
you've done enough. put the tape on and start recording track by track.

This was me exactly one year ago. Track 3 didn't work I soon noticed. And it still doesnt! It's been to a tech who screwed me over and did nothing to improve it. He left me with a broken box and I just haven't found anybody who knows anything more about this machine than myself (and I am NOT technical). Anyway. Hope yours fires up nicely. Good luck and let us know how it went...
 
Hi all,

I haven't written for a while, for the obvious reason that I've been busy recording on and testing the 388.

Let me start out by saying that I consider myself quite lucky, for several reasons:
  • No scratchy pots! I have an Akai MG614 4-track cassette recorder where it seems most of the pots are scratchy. Not so on the 388. I can notice sound when I turn the EQ pots, but everything else about the electronics seems like new. And the EQ, by the way, is very useful.
  • Nearly all tracks work flawlessly! I honestly hadn't expected them to. Track 1 has issues (more below), but track 2-8 have no errors that I can detect.
  • It's so easy to use! I've been mousing away on a computer for the last few years. What a joy it is to plug in to any input, route it to the track I want, and have precise control over monitoring, bouncing and mixing, all within one box! To my needs, the 388 is perfect.

Now, there are issues that I need to sort out. If anyone has tips and tricks, I would be grateful:

Track 1 level wavers, just like a slow tremolo. At first, I reckoned it was tape shed, but had to eliminate that after cleaning the tape path thouroughly. There is no shed, as far as I can see. The tape seems to run evenly past wheels, guides and capstan. The recording/playback head is not much worn, so my primary suspect at the moment is something in the recording/playback electronics.

Any input is welcome.

Thanks in advance,

Eivind
 
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I would first make SURE that the head is clean-clean-clean, and then I suspect that it IS a mechanical alignment issue. It takes very little on those edge tracks to get it to modulate like that...the tape just running slightly to high or too low in the path even just a tiny bit can cause the tape to waver.
 
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