Tascam 388

You Are A God!!!!!!!!!!!

Technoplayer! I love you! YOU ARE A GOD! I haven't done any tweaking yet, but I do have a service manual and I'm gonna give it a shot. I did exactly what you said "Pulled down gently on the left hand side arm while in rewind mode " and it DID speed up. Quite nicely I might add. The only thing about this that might be IFFY is that I've got to find a happy medium for both arms. Is there "standard-kinda default" position setting? Or do you kinda guess until it "feels" right? I'll check it out. Thank you sooo much and I'll keep you guys informed. Also, I'm gonna take pics of this thing and see what you guys think. Heads and stuff. Maybe someone can give me an Idea how much life is left in her. If not much, I might still send her back!
AA. :D
 
Right ON!

I adjusted both tension arms the best I could as to how the service manual suggests. Technically it may not be exact, because I don't have a test tape, but...... WAH-LAH! Rewind is in smooth fast action. Fast Foward is in smooth fast action. Man, I love this forum... Cheers, Techno!!!:D:D:D
 
Great. Sound like you may just have some adjusting to do. Thats a lot better than major repairs or sending it back. Just be sure when you are "tweaking" to:

1) Mentally mark the approximate position of the pot you are tweaking and
2) Go SLOWLY....maybe a 1/4 or 1/8 turn at a time.

You should visually see the arms moving up and down as you turn the pots.
Somewhere I read that there is a preferred position for the tension arms. Look in the manual...I cant right now (at work). I seem to recall it was somewhere slightly above horizontal, but I am not sure.

Let us now how it works out.

Patience grasshopper.....
 
The shipping maybe knocked it out of mechanical alignment. It's good that you have it up and running good now AA. Though you're a brave man to have had it shipped. :eek:
 
Yes, there's a proper position.

The center points of the tension arm pulleys should be geometrically even and level with the tops of the adjacent idler and counter rollers, L/R respectively./DA
 
There is indeed a preferred position for those arms, and ultimately you are messing with the tape tension when you tweak those trimmers...ultimately to do it right-right you need a Tentelometer, but the manual does talk about how to set the position of the arms by eye, first in EDIT with the tape packed half and half on each reel you set each arm to the right position, and then in FFWD or REW...follow the procedure in the manual to a 'T' when you have time. Makes a difference. If you can't find that info in the manual let us know and we can point it out...I also can't look at my copy right now, but can later if needed.

Nice job, Techno.
 
Ahh,.... PSYCH !!!

Beatz,

The beauty of the 388's reel/servo system is that when the tension arm rollers are positioned properly, (above), the tape tension is "magically" correct!

It's nice when things are designed with integrity, like that!

/DA
 
Well, is it truly that way? My 48 and 58 are that way as well. In other words, the manual walks you through where to position the tension arms, but then the Tentelometer is used to double check...I guess more if something is still wacky after positioning the arms correctly...but does the 388, like, not use a Tentelometer for ensuring proper tension? Like there is no way for the tension to be out if the arms are in the right place?
 
Sure, using the tentelometer is by the book, but...

the proof is in the pudding!

Unless you're looking at a sticky or frozen bearing, there's no other way to do it. The one is the other. When the arms are at that postion, the tension is right, and vice versa. When the tension is right the arms are at that position. So it's a chicken/egg scenario. That's the nature of the servo system.

All that positioning and tension issues in Play-motion relates directly to the efficiency of the FF/RW function. Again,... it's the nature of the servos. It has a sweet spot where e'thing's perfect.

The book won't state it as such, but that's MO by firsthand experience and deductive reasoning. YMMV.:eek:;)
 
Anyway,...

only the most esoteric of hardcore analog freakz actually has a tentelometer. Actually, that meanz I should probably have one, but they don't exactly grow on trees.:eek:;)
 
Then I guess Cory and I must be hardcore!:D We've got to hook you up, Dave, with one of them tentelo thingies..:D:D
 
Well, you may recall that when e'thing is in the right spot on my 58 the tensions are wacky...it doesn't hit the sweet spot, so that's what I'm driving at...all posible causes to this point have been exhausted except for maybe something faulty on the control board...so...anyway...

Hey...is that MY Tentelometer in YOUR post?! :eek: What is it doing THERE!??! I'm going to check and see if its still here... :D

Sorry for the hijack, AA.

Analog Freak over and out.
 
Oh....I ain't done yet.....

We had a GREAT band rehearsal tonite! We even hooked up 2 mics (one by the pa speaker for vocals, guitar and bass) and one by the drumset. Sounded pretty cool, I must say. One of the reasons why I'm kinda caught between keeping it is......I've basically got that setup in other gear. I have a Tascam 2524 mixing board and the Fostex R8! That is pretty much the 388. Some of the other band members keep telling me I need preamps and such. That I should've spent that money on outboard gear (and I probably do) But, there's something fun about the 388 that I'm in love with. I really like the EQ section, I really like how ALL 10 vu meters light up, I like the sound and just the whole all around experience of it..... ( I picture having some dim blue mood lighting in the practice room with the 388 up and running, with the correct mic placement....swillin' brewski's, rockin' balls out!.....till the neighbors complain and call the po-lice...) "needle scratch across the record grooves, killing the moment) ahaha. Sorry, We had a great rehearsal, a great time with the 388 and I'm.......well, I'm.....a little drunk. Thanks guys. I think I'll keep'er! Pictures of the set up, soon. I promise. Cheers and G'nite!
 
Hmmmm.....More Problems(?)

So, Now I've been messing with the machine for a little bit, since Wed night. Something weird happened at the start of recording our rehearsal on Wed, but it only happened one time and went away, so I thought nothing of it. I pressed play/rec and the tape lifted up, as did the pinch roller and as soon as it touched the heads...I heard a click and it popped back down again to stop position. I thought, kinda weird, but ok, let's try again. Tried again and everything was fine. Worked fine throughout the nite. Played the tape yesterday morning, all fine. This morning.....Turned the machine on, pressed play, same thing... tape lifted, pinch roller lifted. touched heads, popped back down to stop position. Pressed play, same thing. I kept trying it, same thing happened several times. pressed rwd. wouldn't rewind. pressed ffwd. Wouldn't ffwd. Pressed play. Play light (on button) lit, but nothing happened. Pressed stop, turned the power off. Waited, Turned power on, tried again and everything was fine. Anyone know what happened here? :confused:
 
Try cleaning the heads and tape guides thoroughly, sounds like the dreaded sticky shed to me. I don't have a 388 so maybe one of those guys can confirm/refute my diagnosis.


AK
 
Not sure.

The fuses seem fine.Machine powers up fine everything seems to run as it should. I've cleaned the heads and tape guides, Pinch roller, capstan about 6 times since I've had the machine for like 3 days now. I wouldn't think it would be those things. Like I said, After I turned it off and turned it back on, it was fine. Went through all the tracks and channels to see if everything was working as it should, it was fine. We'll see if this happens more or if other little jitters happen with it. The seller told me I could get a full refund within 30 days if I'm not completely satisfied, so I'm still testing it to see how I feel about it. I put a tape that was previously recorded from my Fostex R8 on it, and it ran super slow. That's when I figured out it runs at a slower speed (which means less sonic quality?) Didn't like that. I really like the mixer section a lot though. Really like it's features. The machine is overall easier to use than some portastudios. I'm in love with that factor. Anybody know...... if I wanted to use the mixer section of the 388 with an external recorder such as my R8, would I be able to do so. If so, how would it be done? Through the buss in's and outs?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top