Tascam M 208 mixer problem

[sweetbeats]

Dude, that's super nice of you and yes, haha hear this message loud and clear. I'd like to think I'm on the same path of studying and learning and one day be able to maintain the equipment I like to use, which as it stands is analogue equipment and if at any point I can afford to upgrade from this budget line to more reliable equipment, I'll be 100% jumping on that. A lot of this is out of financial necessity for me atm, also trying to fix it rather than seek help as 1. analogue audio engineers are a rare breed here in the UK 2. more expensive than the equipment I'm currently using and 3. like I said I want to learn how to maintain and repair this imo beautiful equipment for myself. I really do appreciate people like yourself on here passing on the baton so to speak and sharing your experience and knowledge. And in good news, I've just opened the mixer up again and made sure everything was connected properly and thankfully everything (minus the dodgy monitor pot) seems to be working properly again, not entirely sure what was loose or not connected. I have read through your troubleshooting message anyway and I am soaking all of this terminology in as to better understand and use for any future issues that may arise. I think a basics in electronics course is next on my agenda

A basics in electronics course could certainly be helpful…maybe impart more focused foundational information in a shorter timeframe, but I’ve not taken one spot of schooling in the area of electronics. I’m not saying that’s anything to be proud of, but just pointing out you can learn a lot by seeking mentors and just digging in to try and fix your gear. The Tascam stuff as far as built robustness and reliability is way better than modern stuff only because the pots and switches just got smaller and smaller, and everything is surface-mount components rather through-hole like in your M-208…and budget mixers are all built on a single monolithic PCB that’s all horizontal rather than individual vertical channel PCBs. You can work on something like the M-208 vs something that’s all surface-mount at least that’s me. I am learning to replace surface-mount components right now to try repairing a digital console, but I much prefer through-hole tech. Anyway, if you have a small flat blade screwdriver, like a precision miniature set you can use one of those flat blade bits to pry up and back those four bent-over metal tabs on your monitor pot and you should be able to slide the top off…grab the shaft and lift it off…I think the shaft is captive in the top housing and mounted to the bottom of the shaft underneath would be a delicate assembly with the wipers…small filament strands of flat wire shaped to contact the element board you’ll see underneath when you lift it off. My hunch is a wiper needs to be tweaked so it can make better contact with with the element. If you get it apart you could just post pics of the guts inside the pot and I can take that and markup the pics with labels so you can visually connect what I’m talking about. And I might be able to identify what’s up. Worst case we can’t resolve it with that measure and you pot the top back on the bottom, bend the tabs back over with some needle nose pliers and you’re back where you started. This is all assuming it comes apart like I’m thinking. But I could be wrong.