good day my new found friends. as the title of this thread states.....I AM A REEL-TO-REEL NEWBIE! i've just aquired an Akai 4000DS MKII with a stack of tape and empty spools. now my predicament is that not only am i not 100% sure of how to feed the tape through the machine BUT i also haven't the slightest clue as to how to make the tape "stick/remain" in the empty reel on the right.........does that make any sense?? whats the trick? i cannot find a site with this kind of information online and i've been looking far and wide for the past 2 hours. actually, i did manage to find the service manual for the machine but not the user's manual. any help will be much appreciated...and i mean any help at all.....
Reel-to-Reel Newbie (Akai 4000ds MKII)
- Thread starter mr_mush
- Start date
Dr ZEE
Anti-Pro Circles Insider
here's 4000D model manual, this may help you to get around your machine, also hard to read scans: http://www.obsoletemedia.com/tapedecks/manuals/akaigx4000d/index.htm
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here's photo 4000DS loaded: http://www.hallowquest.com/AkaiFront.jpg
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a nice lady below demonstrates loading technique
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here's photo 4000DS loaded: http://www.hallowquest.com/AkaiFront.jpg
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a nice lady below demonstrates loading technique
Attachments
Place full reel on machine.
Roll the leader off the reel and pass it through the tape path past the heads.
Making sure there is slack enough to keep the tape feeling loose (otherwise it is a battle), put the end of the tape on the core of the take-up reel, and hold the end of tape pressed down with your thumb.
This is the tricky part: roll the take-up reel around once while holding the tape down, until the tape catches up with itself and gets tucked under the next layer. Extract thumb.
Then roll the takeup and feeder reels manually, applying a bit of braking on the feeder reel, and, most of the time, the tape will 'catch' and the tension rollers on the machine will rise to show that the tape is now under tension.
It's one of those things that can be a bit fiddly and I am not sure if anyone ever figured out a fool-proof way to make it catch every time, but that's how I do it.
Do not use adhesive tape to hold the recording tape on the takeup reel. It seems convenient, but you don't want sticky residue on your takeup reel for many reasons.
Best of luck in your tape adventures
C.
Roll the leader off the reel and pass it through the tape path past the heads.
Making sure there is slack enough to keep the tape feeling loose (otherwise it is a battle), put the end of the tape on the core of the take-up reel, and hold the end of tape pressed down with your thumb.
This is the tricky part: roll the take-up reel around once while holding the tape down, until the tape catches up with itself and gets tucked under the next layer. Extract thumb.
Then roll the takeup and feeder reels manually, applying a bit of braking on the feeder reel, and, most of the time, the tape will 'catch' and the tension rollers on the machine will rise to show that the tape is now under tension.
It's one of those things that can be a bit fiddly and I am not sure if anyone ever figured out a fool-proof way to make it catch every time, but that's how I do it.
Do not use adhesive tape to hold the recording tape on the takeup reel. It seems convenient, but you don't want sticky residue on your takeup reel for many reasons.
Best of luck in your tape adventures
C.