Tell me if these prices for MSR-16 repair seem reasonable...

[Seeker of Rock]

The MSR-16 I recently bought is at Amp Services in West Palm Beach for a look over. Tom there advised me it needs the following:
Tach roller (which I knew...it was very sticky) $140
Heads relapped (they had uneven wear, excessive on one side) $220
Calibration $150

OUCH!! They come highly recommended by some higher end studios in Miami, and seem to know their business. Tom said the pinch roller needs replaced as well but I told him I could do that. It is not sticky and seems fine, but I am new to reel machines.

Anyway, any thoughts on these rates for a professional shop?

 

[Seeker of Rock]

Out of curiosity, how fucked up do your heads have to be to need relapping? Just curious, but my intial guess may be "pretty fucked up". Just wondering what the details of that would be aside from the obvious...

 

[acorec]

The MSR-16 I recently bought is at Amp Services in West Palm Beach for a look over. Tom there advised me it needs the following:
Tach roller (which I knew...it was very sticky) $140
Heads relapped (they had uneven wear, excessive on one side) $220
Calibration $150

OUCH!! They come highly recommended by some higher end studios in Miami, and seem to know their business. Tom said the pinch roller needs replaced as well but I told him I could do that. It is not sticky and seems fine, but I am new to reel machines.

Anyway, any thoughts on these rates for a professional shop?

If the machine is in good condition, these repairs are going to be needed on every machine on planet earth. Head re-lapping is a nromal routine and every machine on planet earth will need it guarenteed sonner or later.

This comes with the territory. I calibrate my machines once a week usually. Most home recorders never even see a calibration ever. Calibration is very important if you want the machine to sound right. Calibration takes into account machine wear so a machine should be calibrated at least once per year if you put average hours on it.

 

[acorec]

Out of curiosity, how fucked up do your heads have to be to need relapping? Just curious, but my intial guess may be "pretty fucked up". Just wondering what the details of that would be aside from the obvious...

You don't want to use heads that wear unevenly too long. Re-lapping is better done when the heads just start to show signs of eneven wear. If you let it go too long after that, re-lapping may not be an option. Re-lapping removes head material to square-it-up. If you wear a part ogf the head too much, re-lapping will remove too much material from the heads. Of coarse, after re-lapping the machine transport HAS to be aligned to fix the uneven wear problem. If the machine is wearing evenly, then you can go a little longer before re-lapping but you still have to align the transport just to be sure that everything is right. Most heads can be re-lapped a few times if wear is caught early.

 

[BMWerks]

Why not take that $510 .00 you would be spending to repair that unit, add another $600.00 and get 24 tracks of 24 bit digital recording, forget reshaping, degausing, head cleaning, expensive 1" tape (which is going up in cost all the time and going, going, going....)PLUS! you get; one hell of a mixer, mastering dynamics, FX and a red book spec. CD burner to boot!.! And be saving a lot of realestate!

What the hell is this sophomoric transfixation people are having with analog recorders lately? IMO, you're wasting your time. Analog=warm. Digital=britle. This argument no longer holds water.