Tascam 688 repair question

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jefporkins

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I recently bought a Tascam 688 from a fellow on Craig's List. It's an 8-Track recorder that records on Compact Cassettes. I've been experiencing an infrequent problem. Every now and again the tape will stop and the counter will clear to 0000. It does this while I'm tracking and during playback. Sometimes it does it immediately when I press play, sometimes in the middle of the song. I can do multiple sessions where it doesn't act up, but sometimes it will simply refuse to work properly.

I've been using 90 minute High Bias (Type II) tapes. It has done it at the beginning, the middle and the end of the tapes. I always exercise the tape (FF to the end and RWD to the beginning) in another deck before I use the tapes. I haven't demagnetized it yet, but I'm planning to do so today.

Has anyone experienced this sort of problem before in either a 688 or other compact cassette player recorder or any other tape deck or Tascam machine?

Does anyone have any ideas on where I could take or send this machine to where it could be repaired (I have a copy of the service manual)?
 
I believe it is a problem with the cassette sensor switch...that is a little lever arm switch at the TOP of the cassette bay that tells the 688 that a cassette is loaded. IIRC it gets misshapen after the years and doesn't stay switched all the time. Don't recall with the fix is to this exactly but it is resolvable.

Hey you 688 guys...anybody remember that thread on this? There was something about it and a solution...
 
Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I found the switches at the top and it would seem that that should be the problem. I pushed them in with my fingers while there was no tape in and it played and rewound then stopped and cleared when I removed my fingers.

I plan on affixing a small styrene modeling piece (much like a popsicle stick but not as wide) to the top of each cassette with some adhesive tape to apply more pressure when the cassette is inserted.

I'll reply within the week if it doesn't work out.

Again, Thank you so much! This is a huge weight off my mind. Both the artist I've been working with and myself were quite upset at the possibility of having wasted our time if this machine was completely broken. But things are looking up.
 
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