Tascam 388 Story...

hey Cory what an odyssey of a thread! So glad to hear everything worked out in the end.
I acquired a nice 388 myself a few months ago and I love it.
Did you by any chance do any frequency response testing with dbx engaged?
On my 388 the frequency response is well within spec with dbx bypassed but using noise reduction really seems to drastically roll off the high end (someone else noticed this earlier in this thread and a few others on the big TapeOp thread said similar things). I'm just curious if the overhaul you performed helped in this respect.
 
I didn't do any response testing with dbx engaged so I dunno...would have been interesting...I thought about it but real-world testing sounded so great to my ears and I didn't really have the time anyway.
 
hey thanks cory.
Something must be out of whack with mine as it sound like someone draped a wool blanket over speakers with dbx engaged.
I'll try to do some testing with pink noise and a spectrum analyzer to try to get a better feel for what's happening.
As an aside: I love this 388. It's an amazing tool for demo'ing songs.
 
Hmmmm...

So what tape ARE you using, what operating level do you have the machine set for and how does the playback and record response look? And what are your bias amps outputting?

I can tell you that with the dbx engaged on mine it made the noise floor just...gone. And everything else sounded great. I was truly impressed/pleased.
 
Hi! I am having problems with my 388 and I really need your help. There is no signal coming through (line out from guitar amp into line in on 388), meters stand still, and pretty loud hiss coming out from headphones even though monitor level turned to zero. This started after general cleaning of whole thing. It was working when I bought it. While cleaning the only serious things that I took out was channels' boards, it's faders and power board with big radiators. Because whole thing powers up, I assume there is no problem with the power board. So my thoughts is there is something wrong with channels' boards or faders. Maybe bad contact with board that assembles channel boards or something similar. But before I go make something stupid again I need some advise on what it may be or what to test for. I have no proper techs where I live so I really will appreciate your help.
 
This is probably bigger than I realistically have time to get into.

How familiar are you with operating the 388? And do you have the manual?
 
I completely enjoyed reading this thread (although I have no clue about being technical). Rebuilding the 388 and bringing it back to life like that was killer. Then to read on that you sold it was kinda anti climatic, but lucky for one musician.

I bought my Tascam 388 brand new from the factory in 1985. I still have it today although it is currently on ebay. I'm never going to use it again and someone that wants to put the time in to it will have a great recorder. The reason I found this thread was because after testing my unit, I found it won't record. After I listed, someone emailed me to ask if it recorded. I thought that odd, but what the heck, let's try. Sure enough, it didn't. I can see a signal, but nothing plays back. So at this point I've reduced the price and am selling it "AS IS". I wish I could figure it out, but alas, I not much for technical. Had it not been for a thread I found on replacing the belt, I'd have been lost when I replaced the old one. To me though, that was pretty easy stuff.

If anyone has ideas I can try, I'll be open for simple attempts. Otherwise, I'm fine letting it go "AS IS". It's about as clean cosmetically as I've seen and it plays, rewinds, and FF no problem. It even lights up red when I press record/play. So I'm hoping it won't be anything too difficult.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Ron
 
Hey guys. Greetings from Belgrade, Serbia!
I just got my Tascam 388 today. I played some old tapes I got with it and the sound is amazing. I'll bring it to my bands studio to record some tunes these days.

It's in really good condition, and I got if for 450€ with TEAC E 3 Head Demagnetizer, 4 channel stewart phantom power supply and 2 Maxell 7" tapes.
The only thing that is not working is the light in the VU meter #8. What kind of a light is it and how hard is to replace it?

Thanks
Uros
 
I can't see any part number for VU backlight LEDs in my 388 manual, so maybe you have to replace the meter its self.

The part number is 5296005000
 
RE: replacing the v/u meter lights:

sweetbeats said:
I've done it on mine.

Its not too bad depending on what is not "too bad" for you.

You have to pull all the audio cards and dbx cards out as well as the balance amp and meter amp card...bias cards too IIRC...shoot maybe EVERY card has to come out...and then there are screws at the top inside of the card bay that hold retainer strips for each set of 4 meters. Depending on which meter has the dead lamp you may need to remove both sets of meters since they are hardwired together...but once you have whatever removed to get access to the meter the lense is held on by clear adhesive tape...peel that away and you can remove the lense and then heat up the soldering iron and swap out the lamp.
Click to expand...
 
VU Meter Bulb Replacement with LED lamps

Teac15VUBulbReplacement1-1-1.jpg
 
Is there any other manual in pdf format except this one?
thesnowfields.com/manuals/Tascam_388_Manual.pdf

Here it is ...tascam 388 uros.jpeg
 
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Ron_L said:
I completely enjoyed reading this thread (although I have no clue about being technical). Rebuilding the 388 and bringing it back to life like that was killer. Then to read on that you sold it was kinda anti climatic, but lucky for one musician.

I bought my Tascam 388 brand new from the factory in 1985. I still have it today although it is currently on ebay. I'm never going to use it again and someone that wants to put the time in to it will have a great recorder. The reason I found this thread was because after testing my unit, I found it won't record. After I listed, someone emailed me to ask if it recorded. I thought that odd, but what the heck, let's try. Sure enough, it didn't. I can see a signal, but nothing plays back. So at this point I've reduced the price and am selling it "AS IS". I wish I could figure it out, but alas, I not much for technical. Had it not been for a thread I found on replacing the belt, I'd have been lost when I replaced the old one. To me though, that was pretty easy stuff.

If anyone has ideas I can try, I'll be open for simple attempts. Otherwise, I'm fine letting it go "AS IS". It's about as clean cosmetically as I've seen and it plays, rewinds, and FF no problem. It even lights up red when I press record/play. So I'm hoping it won't be anything too difficult.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Ron
Click to expand...
Ron,
I'm having the exact same problem (it seems) with my 388. Did you ever end up figuring out what the problem was?

Thanks!
Cody
 
Great thread.....Sweetbeats, I want your machine :thumbs up:
I haven't had gear lust in a while, but reading your restoration was brilliant. Also the link to the MS16 restoration was really interesting....it took me about two and a half hours to read through them all....what a source of knowledge.

It's funny, I thought I knew about the most significant pieces of equipment that make up the story of recording since the 70's, but the 388 eluded me until about five or six years ago. I've never seen one in the flesh. I think they probably sold the majority to the US market (does it have auto switching voltage?) as they hardly ever come up for sale on UK or European Ebay....maybe one a year? I'd love to have one though........the stuff you see on YouTube really whets the appetite....c'mon someone in Europe must have a nice minty fresh one that they want to sell me....PM me.

Cheers
Al
 
...

When I first saw the 388 (1985) I was very impressed!
When I first got a 388 (2001) I was still very impressed!
:spank::eek:;)
 
...

It may have been late in Y2K, but it's whenever I discovered eBay and realized the price floor for analog had dropped through the bottom. However, I liked it so well & made up for lost time. By 2005 I had 4 of them!
:spank::eek:;)
 
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