Tascam 388 out of Hibernation

[technoplayer]

I am on a quest to get all the gear I've got in hibernation to either be fully functional and used or get rid of it. I dont know about other list members but I have come to a late life realization that
1) I have too much stuff and 2) I have diminishing patience to keep fixing and maintaining stuff I rarely/ever use.

That said up front, I have a very clean 388 I'd like to use that worked perfect when I last use it several years ago and is now glitchy. Nothing serious I presume, just stuff like dropped playback on a few channels and sticky controls. I would appreciate some guidance in walking thru a few issues.

What I DONT want to do is damage the stupid thing while trying to fix it (Rule #1). That said my first (very minor) issue is the rewind button sticks down. I understand cleaning/lube will fix this right up, but cannot seem to get the tape deck control panel off, and i dont want to force it (see Rule #1). I have taken off the four corner screws but something seems to be hloding it down.

Question: how do i get the control section out? The exploded view in the manual makes it look like those four screws are the entire story.

>>> This is the most minor issue ...more to come. Any help here? Cory maybe??

 

[sweetbeats]

Mmmmmmmmdang…trying to remember…I looked at pics I took when I completely disassembled my first 388, and also looked at the exploded views and it sure does look like, with the 4 screws out it should lift off, but I seem to recall having to do something from the underside but neither my pics or the service manual jog my memory. Does it budge at all? The other thought is usually when buttons like that stick it’s the button cover or cap hanging on escutcheon or panel cutout…have you tried just squirting a little DeoxIT D5 or similar around the button cover to see if you can exercise it and get it to work correctly? Squirt, exercise and maybe blow it out with some compressed air?

 

[technoplayer]

Mmmmmmmmdang…trying to remember…I looked at pics I took when I completely disassembled my first 388, and also looked at the exploded views and it sure does look like, with the 4 screws out it should lift off, but I seem to recall having to do something from the underside but neither my pics or the service manual jog my memory. Does it budge at all? The other thought is usually when buttons like that stick it’s the button cover or cap hanging on escutcheon or panel cutout…have you tried just squirting a little DeoxIT D5 or similar around the button cover to see if you can exercise it and get it to work correctly? Squirt, exercise and maybe blow it out with some compressed air?

I shot deoxit around the button and it frees up a bit. Really it was not just sticking down but also very sluggish coming back up like it was fighting something sticky. I’m going to keep working it . In fact all the controls need a shot and some working to clear them up. That may be part of the issue with the dropped channels. I think concentrating on the line/mic/remix switches might be a good idea.
I think I may have to do a more extensive tear down and de-ox than I planned.

The odd thing about the channel drops is it’s a mix of even and odd channels, not what I’d suspect if it was a loose board or something like that.
Keep y’all updated