Tascam TSR-8 transport problem (jerks, stops, runs intermittently)

[kkeydel]

Hi all,

I'm the original owner of a Tascam TSR-8 which had been sitting in it's box for about the last 20 years. I have four old reels of recordings of friends, including one who is deceased that I wanted to convert to digital. Unfortunately, I used the Ampex 456 tape and am now suffering with the sticky shed syndrome.

---- TRANSPORT WON'T RUN --------
Last night I was re-winding the tapes "tails out" to get a clean wind prior to baking them. I re-routed the tape away from the heads and pinch roller, taped up the tension knobs so the reels would run and pressed Play. Everything worked beautifully until I foolishly began moving the tension knobs to adjust the speed. Suddenly, the transport stopped, all of the LEDs lit up (as if the machine were re-initializing itself) and wouldn't play again. If I pressed play (after the LEDs went out), the transport would jerk in the direction of play, but the brakes would suddenly apply, and it would stop, lighting all of the LEDs again. This also happens with REW and FF.

---- TAPE ROUTED OVER HEADS -----------
I re-routed the tape over the heads, thinking that it would give the correct tension "signal", but the same thing happened. Frustrated and tired, I kept trying different positions of the tension knobs, and suddenly, the transport came to life, playing the tape as it should. Unfortunately, in this way, I'm losing some oxide to the heads which I promptly clean. But only then and one other time does it run. Since then, I've managed to get the one tape rewound using the transport, but cannot get it to run consistently. It acts like there is one "sweet spot" in the tension adjustment, but I can't seem to find it again.

----UNLOADED REELS----
I have more luck if I try to run the transport without any reels loaded. If I hold the tension knobs in different positions, the transport runs (REW, FF, PLAY) like it should. Once the reels are loaded - it jerks and stops again.

Does anyone know of anything I can do? Is this machine so computerized that it processes these tension values and stores a value that prevents the transport from running? I'm looking forlornly at reels of tape that I may have to send to a re-mastering service $$$. I've searched this issue all over the web, but there doesn't seem to be much information about it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Kurt

 

[RRuskin]

Hi all,

I'm the original owner of a Tascam TSR-8 which had been sitting in it's box for about the last 20 years. I have four old reels of recordings of friends, including one who is deceased that I wanted to convert to digital. Unfortunately, I used the Ampex 456 tape and am now suffering with the sticky shed syndrome.

---- TRANSPORT WON'T RUN --------
Last night I was re-winding the tapes "tails out" to get a clean wind prior to baking them. I re-routed the tape away from the heads and pinch roller, taped up the tension knobs so the reels would run and pressed Play. Everything worked beautifully until I foolishly began moving the tension knobs to adjust the speed. Suddenly, the transport stopped, all of the LEDs lit up (as if the machine were re-initializing itself) and wouldn't play again. If I pressed play (after the LEDs went out), the transport would jerk in the direction of play, but the brakes would suddenly apply, and it would stop, lighting all of the LEDs again. This also happens with REW and FF.

---- TAPE ROUTED OVER HEADS -----------
I re-routed the tape over the heads, thinking that it would give the correct tension "signal", but the same thing happened. Frustrated and tired, I kept trying different positions of the tension knobs, and suddenly, the transport came to life, playing the tape as it should. Unfortunately, in this way, I'm losing some oxide to the heads which I promptly clean. But only then and one other time does it run. Since then, I've managed to get the one tape rewound using the transport, but cannot get it to run consistently. It acts like there is one "sweet spot" in the tension adjustment, but I can't seem to find it again.

----UNLOADED REELS----
I have more luck if I try to run the transport without any reels loaded. If I hold the tension knobs in different positions, the transport runs (REW, FF, PLAY) like it should. Once the reels are loaded - it jerks and stops again.

Does anyone know of anything I can do? Is this machine so computerized that it processes these tension values and stores a value that prevents the transport from running? I'm looking forlornly at reels of tape that I may have to send to a re-mastering service $$$. I've searched this issue all over the web, but there doesn't seem to be much information about it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Kurt

Tapes with sticky-shed syndrome will stop a transport from behaving properly. I'd suggest baking the reels before doing anything else or loading a new reel of tape to see if it's the machine or the tape.

If the machine is the problem, you could be looking at a variety of things. My bet would be that after 20 years, something in the power supply failed and took out some of the transport circuitry. I have 1st hand experience of just such a failure with an old 25-2 mastering deck. When it happened back in the 80's, parts were still available. I wouldn't count on it now.

BTW - my studio does 1/2" 8 track restoration/transfers all the time. Just sent 2 reels worth off to a client a few days ago.

 

[kkeydel]

Thanks for the reply, Rick.

I'll probably see about cleaning everything I can, and maybe try a new tape as you suggested. I've used this for about 2 hours in the past two months and the transport was perfectly fine up until last night.

I would like to bake these, but they were so poorly wound when I put them away all those years ago (I never even thought of "tails out" storage). I think they ought to have a clean wind before baking, right?

When all else fails (seeing as you're in Seattle), I may give you a shout regarding these reels. I've hesitated to have these done professionally because the recording quality vs. cost doesn't seem to add up - especially given the amount of useless-except-for-nostalgia noise on these guys.

Kurt

 

[RRuskin]

Thanks for the reply, Rick.


........... I think they ought to have a clean wind before baking, right?............


Kurt

In my book, never! You can damage the tape and/or the machine. You bake and then slow wind or play the tape back to heads.

 

[kkeydel]

In my book, never! You can damage the tape and/or the machine. You bake and then slow wind or play the tape back to heads.

Well, that's good to know. Obviously a clean wind is the best of all possible worlds, but if it's going to damage heads and/or tape, I see the light. Thanks, Rick.

 

[jjones1700]

Just a quick tip:

Food dehydrator. NOT the oven you use every day. Don't want to contaminate what you use with food. Might be common sense, but one can never be too careful.

 

[kkeydel]

Food dehydrator

Absolutely! The Snackmaster for one.

I haven't baked anything yet, and I understand it needs to be at very low heat (130 deg F).

Rick, thanks very much for contacting me the other day. You've obviously done quite a bit of restoration. I don't have the budget for it right now, but I will definitely keep that as an option.

Further developments with my TSR-8 transport problem.... While it may be true that the circuits were affected by bad tape, I was (through methodical tweaking) able to adjust the winding and take-up tension via the variable resistors (R104 and R106) on the component PCB to where the machine plays again. Good information is found in the Tascam Operation and Maintenance manual. Obviously, something became unbalanced, and I know that certain signals can over-bias a leg of a solid state circuit, I didn't think that such conditions would "stick".

In any event, I'm able to play good tapes on the deck again. Lesson learned - bake so you don't break!