SotionPeller
New member
Hi, I was told this was the place to find portastudio experts. I am excited to finally own my first cassette multitrack, and I'm looking for somewhere to get advice on restoring them.
I bought two 244's for $60 off of craigslist last weekend. The seller had "rebuilt" both transports and "tested" both units for functionality. I can say that the belts and rollers all seem brand new. One unit seems entirely functional, however the other is not... There is some issue preventing me from playing or recording to tape. When a cassette is in and I press play, the heads move up, freeze for two seconds, then move back down. If I take the tape out but hold up the switches in the tape deck as if a tape were inserted, the play button will move the heads up and start spinning as normal, but the "play" speed goes at the "fast forward" speed (which actually seems to be even faster than FF on the functional unit).
I reached out to the seller, but he said he had never experienced this issue. I believe that the transport mechanicals are not the problem, but instead, it has some electrical/logic malfunction. I should say I'm pretty inexperienced with analog electronics, and I partially wanted these units as a sort of learning project for me since the manual is so informative for a noobie. Any specific knowledge about what might be the problem would be helpful. Also, any additional resources for cleaning, refurbishing, and maintaining these machines would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!
I bought two 244's for $60 off of craigslist last weekend. The seller had "rebuilt" both transports and "tested" both units for functionality. I can say that the belts and rollers all seem brand new. One unit seems entirely functional, however the other is not... There is some issue preventing me from playing or recording to tape. When a cassette is in and I press play, the heads move up, freeze for two seconds, then move back down. If I take the tape out but hold up the switches in the tape deck as if a tape were inserted, the play button will move the heads up and start spinning as normal, but the "play" speed goes at the "fast forward" speed (which actually seems to be even faster than FF on the functional unit).
I reached out to the seller, but he said he had never experienced this issue. I believe that the transport mechanicals are not the problem, but instead, it has some electrical/logic malfunction. I should say I'm pretty inexperienced with analog electronics, and I partially wanted these units as a sort of learning project for me since the manual is so informative for a noobie. Any specific knowledge about what might be the problem would be helpful. Also, any additional resources for cleaning, refurbishing, and maintaining these machines would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!
