Tascam 388 Story...

IT's times like this I hate being stuck in South Dakota (oh, yeah, and being broke!!!) I want on so bad!!!! Just for my own interest . . . what are you looking to get for it?

Good luck with the sale man.
 
Well, I may be unrealistic, but something around $900 is where I'm probably going to start. I see people asking that kind of price for their 388 and I don't know if they ever sell it at that, but I also don't suspect that the machine has been gone through like mine and/or had the new parts installed, heads with a fresh lap, complete setup plus the accessories. So, we'll see. Not quite ready to move it as I've got to do the setup, but before too long it'll be listed on CL.
 
Hi all,
I just joined, as I recently purchased a Tascam 388, after reading many of these forums, (including the epic tape op forum), very excited to own one finally and excited to join this forum. It just came up on Craig's list in Seattle area, and it was listed as in excellent working order, and very clean, with only issue being the rewind speed, which I knew was an easy fix. The guy was pretty knoeledgable, nice dude, this is the second one he owned, and was selling to help pay for his wedding. It was as listed, super clean, hardly a scratch, no signs of real wear and tear, definitly looked fantastic for a 25 year old machine. He loaded the tape, hit play (not hooked to monitors), needles all rockin, and he assured me all parts were working as they should. He said he recently replaced the capstan belt. All the rollers and everything are soooo clean and not worn. So I felt good about it. Gave him the cash, 700 ( I know it's allot, but I felt worth it with one this well kept up). Get it home, hook it up, fixed the rewind (super easy), felt good about myself and my purchase. Check all the chanels, all recording as they should. Play back. PGM monitor channels, all good to go. Switch inputs to RMX, hit the assign switches to L/R, de activate record buttoms for all chanels, hit play. Bairly any sound :( Unhook the ballanced cables from the Stereo out, hook up some RCA's, switch to unballanced, same thing. Hook up to monitor out L/R, same thing, headphones, same thing. Read more of the manual to better understand the signal flow. It should be working. I've hit all the switches, re-read all the forums. I'm pretty damn nervous, at work, not able to try more, kind of freakin out. I emailed the buyer telling him the sitch, asking if he had any issues, if he knew if I was doing anything dumb. Haven't heard back, I think he will hit me back, but don't know what he can do at this point. I'm picking up new fuses on my way home, and switch them out. If that doesn't work, I'm wondering if I knocked one of the circuit boards loose, adjusting the tension to fix the rewind, or the car ride over jiggled somthing out of whack. I guess I will try and re seat (I don't know if that's the right term) the boards. I'm not super savy when it comes to fixing electronics but I'm a pretty capable trouble shooter so who knows. Any suggestions? I posted on this thread as I noticed some damn knoeledgable folks on here. HELP!!!!!! I will say when I get this fixed I can't wait to post a love letter about this bad boy......hopefully I won't go broke getting it up and running. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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Yeah I did a very thorough cleaning with 99% alcohol. Again the thing that concerns me is I'm getting a very clear signal through the PGM monitor bus, but not through the stereo mix bus.
 
Update on my 388, Changed fuses, tried to unplug and replug the circuit boards that you can access from the top, didn't want to force them so I just jiggled them around, and they all seem like they are in there good. None of that fixed the issue. I know it's not specifically the stereo outputs as I have the same issue with headphones on. To clarify, I do have sound the fader control, however it very quiet and thin, the eq's work, but again, very faint, lots of hiss as I have it turned up all the way. PGM's work fine, and thankfully the bus outs work perfectly. So I can actually use it the way I planned, by using the bus 1-2 pluged into my Digi 003, that has the monitors hooked to it, and use the headphone jacks on that. So basically, somthing is definitly wrong with the stereo bus, but at the moment I can use the bus one two to have 100% functionality to how I want to use it. When I do eventually mix down (solo record, I'm playing all the instruments so it's gonna take several months to complete) I would strongly prefer to use the Ballanced stereo out, or I can just mix it on protools. So I will eventually need/prefer to fix it. But for now, I can rock this thing just fine. Still any suggestions from far more savy folks then I, on here would be very helpful. Sorry these posts are so wordy and full of errors, grammar is not my strong suit. :)
 
It'll be a few days before I can respond in detail. I'll have to analyze the info in your posts and then pull the schematics out but give me some time and I may have some additional troubleshooting steps go take or a suggestion on what might be wrong...better yet maybe somebody will have a suggestion in the meantime.
 
Cool, thank you for giving it a shot. Another thing I forgot to mention, is when I am playing back through the stereo bus, when I pan, only left it pans full left, but panning right it doesn't fully pan. Just another detail. I'm in no hurry as I'm running everything out of the 1-2 bus into my 003 and plenty happy and productive and it works perfectly in that mode. Man I love the sound, just did some drums and played around with the dbx, and decided I like it more without, that tape saturation sound is nice and fat.
 
A quick question on the 388 on top of the bigger question I have going. I read earlier in the thread (and saw the photos) about the card bay, that cards should come out very easily. As I am not very experienced in this, but I have read that pulling them out and reseating them (carefully I know), can somtimes fix up these problems. I tried to pull them out, nervously, and they were in there much tighter then I had anticipated, and I didn't want to force them, so I didn't pull them. How much force should I use? I removed the metal piece that holds the first four our five cards (the area with the reel servo, fuses and all). How hard sould I be comfortable pulling. They don't seem to just slide right out, but I don't have allot of experience with this. (I have a very steady hand, and am good at taking things out and putting them back where they belong) but I don't want to break anything. Am I missing somthing here, or should I just give em a good go?
 
1. So there's no difference in the sound level at the STEREO OUT jacks, MONITOR OUT jacks or in the headphones when monitoring the stereo buss if you have the MONO button depressed right?
2. Are the meters, when monitoring the L/R buss also relatively dead (i.e. you've got barely any signal off the STEREO OUT/MONITOR OUT jacks or in the headphones and the meters also probably barely move or if at all correct)?
3. Do you get normal/acceptable signal levels in the headphones as well as off the MONITOR OUT jacks when the monitor source is switched to AUX or EFFECT?
4. Can you effect any change in the low output level problem by applying gentle but firm downward pressure on the STEREO MASTER fader?

As far as the cards go, if they have never been removed they will be in there firmly, and require some oomph to get them out.

If the cards have holes in the corners you can get a piece of solid copper wire or a piece of coathanger wire and make a bale to help pull them out, distributing the tension and giving you a nice handle to hang on to. Reseating cards can help a number of things but if you are having no other problems I wouldn't consider card seating to be your problem at the moment, so I wouldn't mess with them unless you are just curious. They are meant to come out so you aren't typically going to cause any damage by removing them, but, depending on the answers to my questions I'm honing in on an issue with the stereo master fader, the stereo amp circuit, or a logic switching IC that's not kicking things over to the master buss.
 
ALSO...

Try this...

1. make sure that all the L/R assign switches are in the UP position
2. make sure the the PGM/CUE switch is in the DOWN (PGM) position
3. connect a mic or other source to channel 1 and set your TRIM and LEVEL
4. ASSIGN to PGM 1
5. set the level knob for MONITOR channel 1 to a nominal level (maybe 12:00 to 2:00 position), PAN center
6. any improvement in the level coming off the STEREO OUT, MONITOR OUT or headphone jack when the MONITOR source is set to STEREO?
 
Thanks for getting back, so appreciate it. 1. No difference on all three of the jacks. Mono buttom depressed, checked it pressed too, same problem. The meters on the L/R buss are not working, which I forgot to mention. I'll have to double check question 3, and haven't at all tried to apply pressure on the master fader. I'll leave the cards alone, for now, I would like to do as much cleaning up on the inside as I am capable of eventually. I will check the other things you suggested tonight when I'm home from work and report back. I have to check a few more things with this, but I'm concerned my line in's have some issue as well. But I have to check a few more sources, cables and things to confirm that. It very well might be a "pro level +4db" to -10db line in issue. I can't find anywhere that says if the line in on the 388 is +4 or -10. Thank you so much!
 
Yeah...its hiding there...I think its in the specs too but I like level diagrams if they exist...easier to read.

Keep us posted.
 
Allright, so I tried the other suggestions, and I have narrowed down the problem. Preasure on the main fader had no results. But (I'm a little embarrassed about this), by having the channels assigned to the bus's, not the main L/R bus, turning up the the pgm volumes, hitting the pgm/cues switch (down), turning up the main fader, and chanel faders, I have full control through the faders, through the stereo main outs, and monitor out, and headphone out, plus the main L/R VU meters are dancing beutifully. For some reason, after all the reading, plugging, switching, I didn't get that result before, I think stress affected my problem solving skills. But I think I wasn't switcing the PGM/Cue switch in the down position. Now, when I have all the bus assign switches up, and hit the L/R assign switchs down, I get the quiet barely any signal problem. I put the PGM switch up, still the same. All the record switches are up, everything is where it should b, I think I have it all covered, so my thought now, which is much better then what I thought initially, is the problem is limited to the L/R assign switches. Allot better then before, it's definitly not the main bus as a whole being fried but it's limited to the L/R assign switches. Thoughts? I'm still mad at myself that I didn't get that figured out sooner, I think I was so freaked out that my beutiful new machine that I have coveted for so long, and paid good money for (and seriuosly this baby is so clean and well taken care of) had a major problem (hopefully this isn't a major one). The good thing is I'm tracking, with great results. So it's not a problem that is keeping me from getting good work done.
 
Yeah, the L/R assign switches pretty much override everything. They act like a SOLO function.

Try each channel one at a time (i.e. just have only one channel's L/R switch in the down position at a time and all other assign switches in the up position)...same problem with weak/no signal at the outputs with each of the 8 channel's L/R assign switches?
 
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