Tascam 388

A

analog aaron

Swami King of Poppers
Ok. So my friend has a few reels of 456, just one pass tape. Assuming it's not sticky, Would it be suitable to use this tape for the 388? I also have an unopened reel of 456. I was thinking of just buying new tape but don't know what is recommended. What new tape is "easy" on the heads? Also, What tape would I be able to use for the load function on the 388? Thanks Guys,
Aaron
 
What is recommended, to achieve factory specs, is a 1mil tape [also best with the load function]. What is up in the air, however, is whether or not the thicker tape stock will wear out the transport faster [motors, heads etc..]. I personally think pulling thicker / stiffer tape will do just that, overtime. You wanna take it especially easy on these old machines, as Tim Beck oft commented and stay true to original recommendations.

--
 
Regarding the tape that your friend has, if it is Ampex it may be sticky. If it is Quantagy it won't be. If it is Ampex there is a date on a sticker on the side of the box. anything 1985 or before should be avoided. I have heard, however, that the last batches of Quantagy tape (after bankruptcy) were funky (not in a good way).:D
 
Yeah, if it says anything prior to 1995 then stay clear [for sticky shed]. Another way is to check the back of the box. If it says Opelika, AL, then it's OK but then again if the boxes were opened and tapes used then there's really no way to know, for sure, from where they came.
 
Not Sure..

The Tapes my buddy Ralph has are quantegy, but they are in the greyish plastic fold out reel box with the locking corner tabs. The only thing on the box is a black spine sticker with Quantegy (in red) grand master 456, quantegy Inc, made in USA. Then one sticker with a barcode and 456-15111Y, 1/4" X 1200' and another number 2003014 (?) could this last number be April 01 2003 (?)
 
That last number I believe is from the 14th day of 2003. A good date and overall looks good and if you're sure that the tapes do indeed belong to those boxes then give 'em a try, maybe just for a test or short term use.
 
Daniel, I bet yer right about that number, but it looks an awful lot like a batch number too, and IIRC RMGI batch numbers are not necessarily related to the date. Dunno. Not trying to muddy the waters here AA...and to not muddy the waters further, I understand that just because its Quantegy tape dated '95 or later doesn't mean its trouble-free as I believe there were significant QC issues the middle of this decade. And of course (though it sounds as though the tape you are talking about is from a known trusted source) I must beat the dead horse that just because its tape spooled on a reel marked brand X does not mean that's actually what's on the reel y'know?

You could always contact Quantegy and see if they could confirm year of manufacture from that number...or maybe you pretend you didn't read any of this and you put it on your machine and see if it squeals or bogs down the transport in fast-wind...then you press STOP immediately and thoroughly clean the transport with your cleaner of choice that you have standing by like a fire extinguisher in a match factory. I'd bet money that it'd be fine though...

mud out
 
Well....Makes sense.

Here's what I'm gonna do..... I did receive the machine today and the guy packaged it pretty darn well I mush say. Machine wrapped in 3-4 inches of bubble wrap, inside a box, that box inside another box with 3 inch thick foam corner protectors. The Outside Box was soo big, it looked as if I had purchased a refrigerator online. The wood paneling on the bottom right side got a tiny bit "smashed" and the seller says it wasn't like that. He is offering a 30 return and we are filing a claim anyways. Other than that, the machine looks beautiful. Super clean, as if it was in someone's dust free studio. The mixer section and rest of the machine looks excellent, very, very clean - as if almost new. The heads- look pretty good...I am no expert on heads but they look good to me. I could eat out of the tape transport section. Plexi Cover looks almost brand new. But, anyways...Just to make sure UPS didn't do any internal damages and this being the ONLY tape I have to TEST the unit, I'm gonna try it for TESTING purposes only. If everything is fine w/ it, I'll buy and use only NEW 1 mil tape. Maybe I'll use the IF'FY tape on the Fostex R8 hahaha. (Only because, the R8's heads looked barely ever used and it does perform very well, the body had a cracked handle and cracked off feet. It was probably dropped by someone other than me earlier in it's life....It doesn't effect the performance either way and I got it for next to nothin'
 
Verrry, very cool, AA. Congrats. Hey, put up some pics when you have a chance. If you can get a good shot of the heads I'm sure you'll get some opinions, but it sounds like a winner. Glad to hear you are not adding to he statistic of shipping tragedies.

BTW, some of the most incredible stuff I've ever heard on 1/4" 8-track was tracked on an R8...I would never have guessed that what I was hearing was 1/4" 8-track. Dave at Hilltop Studios was responsibile. ;)
 
............Houston..........

I think we have a problem. I loaded the "IF'FY" tape Machine sounds super quiet and PLAY, FFWD, STOP all work perfectly. RWD seems extremely slow. Almost barely moving. Looks slower than PLAY would be backwards. Looks like I might be sending her back for a refund.(?) God, I hope not. I really wanna use this "BAD LARRY" . Not really sure whats going on with it exactly though, but I haven't much more time to test it this morn (gotta go to work) Further testing will be done at Lunchtime or before band rehearsal tonite.
:(
 
Ok, Ok

Ok, Ok, so I have one of those jobs were I can be a little late sometimes:cool: Not to mention, I'm neurotic about this kinda stuff. Especially, when purchasing a machine that is listed as 100%, because I didn't knowingly buy a project machine (Lord knows I have enough of those)
Pressed FWD till the take up reel was almost full. Pressed stop. Pressed RWD. RWD works great at the start, starts to slow down (but not too bad) when the reel is half full, Really starts to have trouble once the reel is about 3/4 of the way full, Just grinds to a halt once it's near full. Can't have that....at all...my friends. Such a shame, this machine cosmetically looks beautiful as if mint. Any Ideas before, I throw in the towel on it?
 
Alright Already!

I'm officially goin' to work after this post. Maybe this is crazy talk, but I AM using the 456 1.5 mil tape for testing. Would this make this much of a difference? Maybe the weight and thickness of the 456 DOES make a difference. Maybe it's super slow because, technically the tape is thicker and heavier. Anybody know from experience, how this 456 SHOULD perform under NORMAL operating conditions on the 388?:confused:
 
yeah...I'd wait to pass the verdict until you roll new tape on it...1mil vs. 1.5mil won't do what you are talking about...in fact some say it won't make any difference at all. So try some new tape. Are the heads and guides clean-clean-clean like you'd eat off of them?
 
Man, It's so hard to say........

The heads, capstan and guides are super clean, shiney, shiney and then some. I tried a different tape. Unfortunatley I only had access to Ampex 407 for Testing purposes only. New old stock. Opened from shrinkwrap. Same thing super slow. I'll give one more shot with new, new tape and see what happens, but I'm sure it won't come in until after the holidays. Does anyone know if the 388 use a belt of some kind for rwd and ffwd functions. Or is it just the motor? Maybe the motor's on the fritz!? I'd hate to send it back it could be an easy fix, but then again I don't feel like playing Mr. Fix-it anymore. I spend more time tinkering with recorders than actually recording. That's why I bought this machine, My friend gave me some sense and asked" Why are you buying all this project stuff? Why not sell all of it, take the money you would soon spend on this junk and combine all the money and buy something reliable?" Made sense and still does.....That's what I thought I was doing' Arghhhhhh! I must have a love/hate relationship with tape(?) either that or just frustrated.
 
Lets look at this, and lets got dsome other memebers in on this if I am not explaining this right...

1) The rewind and fast forward are controlled by the reel motors, which are direct drive...that is no belt. Only the capstan has a belt.

2) the transport on the 388 has servos in the tensioner arms, which control the tape tension and motor speed. These servos are controlled, in part, by the position of the tape tensioner arms on either side of the head block. IIRC the arms should be about in the center of their travel range at all times. if they are not in the correct position, they can slow down (or speed up) the motor on the corresponding side of the deck. In an extreme case, the motor could stop entirely.
I had a 388 some time back that was flaky slow on the fast forward. If I manually pulled the right hand tensioner servo arm down gently whuile the machine was in fast forward, the fast forward would speed up nicely..

try it.

If this is the problem, then the fix is simple.
There are some easily accessable pots under the top cover of the machine which tweak the position of the tensioners/ servo arms. I am looking at a PDF of the manual here at work and I see the adjustmnets, but would not hazard to explain them to you. If you have a manual, its on page 1-9 in the service section.
If you do NOT have a manual, PM me and I can send you a PDF copy. Its 21MB however...
 
I have a smaller file (two pages) that shows the adjustment point, but I dont seem to be able to upoad it here. Anybody tell me how? Its about 500Kb
 
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