Tascam 388 stopped playback (the battle rages on)

  • Thread starter Thread starter MagnumPI
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MagnumPI

MagnumPI

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I just got my Tacam 388 back from repair the day before yesterday. I used it yesterday for about 4 hours. It was working perfectly. Today I listened back to yesterdays track (all good) then forwarded ahead a bit to start another song.
A few minutes into recording I noticed the tape seemed to be "squeaking" and it seemed to be getting louder and louder. I thought it might be that the tape was somehow wound too tight, so I fast forwarded it to the end (onto right reel), switched places with the left reel and did it again. I set it up again, but when I hit play nothing happened...
The sound of the motor also changed.
It was smooth like a well tuned car and now it sounds like an old clunker. The motor is louder and I have no playback.
I can fast forward and rewind with no problem and no squeaking.
When I lift the tension roller the old clunker car sound starts (even with no tape)
I tried a new tape and that wont play either.
Any thoughts?

p.s. aaaaaaaaaaaaa!!:confused:
 
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I would take it back to the shop since they had everything apart. Could be they failed to tighten a screw or something. Can you see if the capstan is rubbing on anything as it turns?
 
Or the pinch roller. Check that too. Pull the pinch roller away from the capstan as the capstan spins to see whether its the capstan or the pinch roller making the noise.
 
Now it wont even playback at all. It froze up.
It happened right after I fast forwarded it a bit. It suddenly stopped playing back. It just clicks stop.
It still RW and FFs
So I have no squeaking to listen for...just the cranky sound of the motor (it sounds like its dying)
 
Without hearing the sound I can't say for sure, but it could be the motor bearings. On the other hand if the shop partially disassembled the unit and didn't get it back right then it could be rubbing on something that led to the noise and then the freeze up. It could be the capstan motor or the capstan itself.

My general rule is nothing goes wrong by coincidence after a visit to a shop. They did something or failed to do something.
 
can you turn the capstan with your fingers?

It could be something as simple as the capstan belt was slipping and broke. I can't remember all you have said you had fixed on this unit. If you take the bottom panel off you can get to the capstan motor, capstan and belt pretty easily.
 
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Ill take it apart today and check the capstan belt. Thanks.
 
Is the tape path dirty?Take off the top cover above the meter panel and check the fuses.The capstan belt should have been replaced then it was"refurbished".
 
MagnumPI said:
Ill take it apart today and check the capstan belt. Thanks.
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You'll want to check the capstan and the capstan motor to see which is causing the "old clunker"
noise as well. It could be one or the other is seizing up... or the belt has slipped off. To check them remove the belt from the capstan motor and turn it by hand to see if it turns smoothly or not. Then do the same by turning the capstan flywheel. What you're doing here is narrowing things down to which one is causing rough operation. Or as I mentioned before, the belt could have slipped off or is very loose and slipping to a degree that the capstan is not moving with enough force to to its job.

From experience I assume repair shops will cut corners and say they changed things they did not, until they prove otherwise. Never take their word for it.

388a.webp
 
So I checked it out and it was the capstan belt. It was all loose and flopping around. I took the whole machine back to TEAC repair and had them replace it for free because it's still under warranty. The guy Simon there is pretty nice and I think genuinely wants to help but when I mentioned the groves in the fixed guides he said "next time we get it relapped we can rotate those". Ha!
They did give me a new belt for free and I brought it home and recorded on the machine for a few hours and it seems to be working well again.
Im crossing my fingers that I can get through some recording now with a working 388.
From experience I assume repair shops will cut corners and say they changed things they did not, until they prove otherwise. Never take their word for it.
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This I just learned the hard way.
 
someone said something around here before which i think ended up being true. Teac montebello service is not necessarily the best, and two, there are no heads left for the 388, making it a dead end format. I'm happy to stick with 1/2" for now for 8 tracks. This 388 looks very nice, enjoy it, and be constantly on the look for heads on ebay as a backup.
 
MagnumPI said:
So I checked it out and it was the capstan belt. It was all loose and flopping around. I took the whole machine back to TEAC repair and had them replace it for free because it's still under warranty. The guy Simon there is pretty nice and I think genuinely wants to help but when I mentioned the groves in the fixed guides he said "next time we get it relapped we can rotate those". Ha!
They did give me a new belt for free and I brought it home and recorded on the machine for a few hours and it seems to be working well again.
Im crossing my fingers that I can get through some recording now with a working 388.

This I just learned the hard way.
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Awesome! Glad that worked for you!

By the way, it's pretty easy to turn the fixed guides yourself if you are handy with that sort of thing. There are screws on the top and/or bottom for that purpose. On the other hand, from the pictures you posted the guides are not badly worn, but your heads should not need relapping for years unless your using it every day for many hour a day. I would not try turning the tape lifters, however, because they can easily twist off while rotating. I believe they are stamped rather than held firm with screws. That would best be left to a service technician.
 
I have turned tape lifters before. But it requires taking the head stack off and carefully gripping the very top of the lifters with a pair of vise grips and turning.
They turn quite easy.
 
j.harv said:
I have turned tape lifters before. But it requires taking the head stack off and carefully gripping the very top of the lifters with a pair of vise grips and turning.
They turn quite easy.
Click to expand...

Yep, it can be done, but caution is the key. Somewhere in a post on this forum from several years ago is my harrowing story of how I did that on a TSR-8. I used a pair of small vice grips with rubber strips glued on each side with contact cement. I ended up twisting one lifer completely out of the assembly. after swearing every bad word I knew for about half hour I calmed down and was able to secure the lifter back in with a metal punch. I thought about drilling and tapping it for screws, but thankfully the punch worked without bending the lifters. They don't make the lifter assembly for the TSR-8 anymore, so we're on our own with a lot of this stuff.
 
I guess it's Amatuer Hour at Tascam in LA!

I thought replacing the belt would be the first thing you'd do when "refurbishing" a unit "to factory spec".

(It's the first thing I do when refurbishing Tascam recorders, but I'm not a "pro").

The "next time" you have the head relapped? That guy will probably have retired by then. :facepalm:

:spank::eek:;)
 
Hey!

TEAC Service in Montebello was the best until they apparently rolled service over to a new service group, recently. These new guys are seriously amatuers compared to the seasoned pros they had there before. It sounds like they probably burned in their troubleshooting skills for the first time on your 388.

I'm glad you got your 388 fixed & back home. I don't want to make you feel bad for what you went through, but it sounds like they jacked you around quite a bit & upsold you on the relapping when they likely caused the track-1 problem inadvertently.

I could be wrong. That's just judging from a distance. I'm certainly not a "pro". Makes me feel not-so bad about my troubleshooting skills, tho.

YMMV.
 
TEAC Service in Montebello was the best until they apparently rolled service over to a new service group, recently. These new guys are seriously amatuers compared to the seasoned pros they had there before. It sounds like they probably burned in their troubleshooting skills for the first time on your 388.
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Yep.

it sounds like they jacked you around quite a bit & upsold you on the relapping when they likely caused the track-1 problem inadvertently.
Click to expand...
Yea that's the feeling I got too.
 
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