first reddit post ever- seeking advice/ general opinions...

I've inherited a beautiful Tascam 388 from my dad who used it to record in the 80s. It's in really beautiful condition, works great, but im pretty sure it will need a new head stack as the recording function isn't working on any track. I think repairs will be 1000$ or less, and the machine is maybe worth 5000$ or so.....

I primarily play bass in a indie rock band but have been super into recording/producing since learning how to use the 388. Making a lofi folk record on it as well as recording my band's stuff and its been coming along and sounding great.

Am i crazy or does recording to tape just captures a certain vibe, an aura, .... etc? It's so much more satisfying than Abelton, and so much fun to record music without using a computer.

My dad (boomer) thinks that my friends and I (gen z) are crazy for opting analog. He says it's a stupid investment and I should just buy some plugins instead. I have no interest in plugins or even learning more about working digitally. The tascam 388 eqs and cool little reverb box I own is way more fun than abelton and all it has to offer in my opinion.

So my question is, is it a dumb investment to fix the tascam? If I wanna make music for the rest of my life should I just use my money on presets and dive more into recording digitally? Or put more money into my vintage machine and hope it never breaks again (unlikely??)?

Thanks in advance for any comments left <3 trying to rationalize and make an informed decision lol

Hey guys, I’m new to this, I’ve watched a few YouTube videos and the Nagra 4.2 looks pretty awesome, but it’s around 2k right now, is there something out there that is reliable but more affordable? It would be my goal to be able to record tape loops/ sound on sound/ as well as send finished songs to the reel to reel then back into the daw before final mastering. I’m really into ambient / synth based music so I want it to be able to lofi but I don’t want to be limited to only lofi if that makes sense. Any advice or links to reels you believe I should look into would be much appreciated.

New owner of an Akai GX646. I knew it had problems before I purchased it.

Current issue I am working on relates to capstan motor speed; tape playback speed way too fast, doesn’t respond to 7 / 3 inch tape size switch, pitch trim pot has no effect, and adjusting the VR1 and VR2 pots for tape speed, yields no results.

I’m pretty handy with meter and oscilloscope, however not an expert by any means. At what point do you guys call in the professionals?

Problem for me is finding a qualified tech in my area without a 6+ month wait time. Figured I’d try a few things on my own first. I’m going to start at the capstan motor and work backwards testing switches and capacitors.

Just curious how others go about trouble shooting speed issues? Thoughts on obvious issues to check?

I recently purchased an Akai GX-4000D for $140 to add to my hi-fi, and after replacing the belt and lubricating the flywheel, it runs quite well. However, I’ve noticed that it plays a little slow. Now I know that the problem is probably the motor capacitor, but I saw that most people with that issue also had problems with wow and flutter and or needing to manually turn the motor to get it to run. But I have not experienced any of these, leaving me to believe that the culprit lie elsewhere. The only thing I haven’t lubricated is the motor itself, as I do not have any light oil at the moment, and the pinch roller isn’t rubbery anymore, so could these be the problem? Thanks and any help appreciated.

I just finished fixing my Tascam 38, and I'm thinking of trying my hand at recording and mixing a full analog session.

Up until this point I've been doing mix-downs into a 2 channel presonus interface and mastering in the box, but I'm thinking of doing the mix down straight to tape for this, since most of the releases get put out on cassettes anyway.

It'd have to be an easily interpreted/easy to access format for the folks making the cassettes. I know I can bounce tracks around and mixdown on the 38 itself, but that means losing channels on the original mix tape, and the tape guys needing an 8tr half inch machine, which isn't likely. I bet they have quarter inch. I was thinking something like a Tascam 122 but I don't know if the step down from half inch to cassette is going to result in a significant drop in audio quality.

Idk Penny for your thoughts.

Hello fans of Reel to Reed audio equipment!

Just as the title says, I become the owner of a Gx-260D and after cleaning the deck I decided to give it a try, loaded a reel that came with the deck and pressed play, to my surprise the computer speakers that I plugged to the headphones jack let me listen around 5 minutes of Christmas songs (mono audio)

Stopped the player and rewinded the reel in order to change it and try to listen something labeled "Stereo" and then the POP noise and smell of exploding capacitor filled the room!!.

I have downloaded the service manual, I have the tools to remove and resolder components on PCB, plus multimeters, multiple hand tools and some basic electronics experience (enough to build multiple projects using microcontrollers, displays, encoders, etc...).

How feasible is to work and get the player back on operation for someone not 100% familiar with audio electronics and limited testing equipment?

I can get these four 10.5 in reels with 1 inch tape for $25 but I haven’t seen many others for sale. Is this still a useful size? Even if the tape is for junk are the reels still useful/valuable? Thanks.

I picked up a 707. It had no tape or reels. Its functions seemed to work but again. No tape. So i bought a takeup reel and reel of ampex tape (im hoping this is my issue). Ive cleaned the entire tape path. Lubed all the playback linkages. Replaced the counter belt and the VU meter lights. First attempt at recording it has a significant loss of high end detail. Recordings on type 1 cassettes sound better than this. From my understanding a head out of alignment would still playback fine if the recording was made on the same machine. Having only one tape makes me want to get another known good tape and start there. I messed with bias (not alot of adjustment) didnt make a difference. Possibly out of spec caps on the playback amp?

Hello I was given a TEAC 4010s by my grandparents while they were clearing out a crawlspace in our home today and I want to know what I'll need to do for maintenance on the piece before it is or close to 100%. I would like to do as much as possible on my own being a bit of a techy nerd and wanting to save money on this as much as I can knowing the rough street value for a working player. It has been in said crawl space for 30 years and 50 intermittently in storage. It is in good condition externally with only dust plus minor chips on the cabinet and the original cover is missing.

Apologies in advance if this type of question is not allowed. Please remove this post if needed and I'll seek info elsewhere. I'm not looking to try and sell these items here but I have some basic questions/inquiries about the stuff as I'm clueless.

 
We have inherited some old home audio equipment from family and are clearing things out and I'd hate for this to be thrown away but is there any kind of demand or desire for something like this these days?

I believe it's in working condition but I really don't know as I'm not sure how to operate it. Even if it were just for parts for others is there any kind of good website or company or people to contact about finding a good home for these things? It's about a dozen reels/tapes (?) and an Ampex 1260 that looks sort of like a suitcase until you open it. Is this considered just junk? Should it go to the donation bin at goodwill? What makes the most sense for something like this.

I have the chance the get it for about 240usd, along a noise reduction machine (I've asked about it here actually, I know it won't do much of anything other than look cool but the seller is selling both of em as a combo) I know this one is not the greatest machine out there, but I love the idea of the 4 channels for recording. any advice for this machine? or would you just wait until I can find a 10" machine?

I currently have a Sony tc230, so apart from the 4 channel, idk how much of an upgrade this one is. any thoughts would be appreciated, thanks!

A while back I bought a Marantz PMD 222 to use as a tape echo and it worked marvelously. I then had the thought to turn up the speed and feed it back into my reel to reel to artificially double track my vocal. Unfortunately, this came out to a very short echo which lead me to this question. Should I modify the speed of the motor in the Marantz to cut the delay time? Would that even work? Would it be better to get a second Marantz and split the original vocal signal to both machines simultaneously and then recombine them onto another track in my reel to reel? Thanks to any feedback!

Is it possible to play a loop across multiple machines setting one to record and 3 to play? All connected to a multi channel mixer?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RillkJQnZZU&t=93s

Hello,

if something like this would be helpful? I went for a deeper insight and repaired an oldschool german "Tonbandgerät". Maybe it helps to see some issues ya'll could have with these reel to reel players. Nice to see a community reading about tapemachines.

Enjoy.

I have several old Reel to Reel tapes from when I was a kid. They're over 50 years old. I tried to digitize them about 15 years ago. I was successful with one. I tried another and it sounded like 2 tracks playing at the same time. So I gave up and packed them away in the closet. Any idea why that would happen? I'd like to try again. Should I use a specific player? Thanks

$600AUD off Reverb. I'm waiting on an empty reel to try it out, but everything seems in perfect condition, and potentially serviced recently.

What do you think, did I get a good deal? Reverb seems to say that other listings of this same one have sold for a lot more than what I paid.

I've read that The Beatles would record to 4-Track reel to reels and bounce between them for most of their catalog. Why didn't they just bounce to the same machine and avoid the extra equipment. Was it just to get the extra track or did using two reel to reels yield greater quality? I appreciate and answers or speculation, thanks!

Hey everyone,

I recently became the owner of a Sony TC-377 and from the research I did, it seems like people are fans of them! Still on the budget end of reel to reels but far from terrible. If anyone wants to hear a little more about how I obtained mine, I have a small YouTube channel and I made a video about it, you'll find it in my profile if you're interested.

Anyway - After some messing around this afternoon and trying to figure out why the heck nothing was moving, I realized I had been bypassing the automatic stop mechanism, basically I had been naively threading the tape wrong, again after some more googling, seems like I'm not the first and probably not the last, ha!

So this is where I'm at. I have no idea if anything is on the tape it came with, I plugged headphones in but I hear nothing...but I also actually mean zilch. I kinda thought I would have at least heard some hiss from the tape so that makes me wonder if the headphone output it working correctly...I'm also yet to hook it up to my hifi system.

How do I know if the machine is running at the correct speed? I presume I need to buy some sort of test tape that would help me?

Still haven't cleaned the heads, I know this is a must.

The belts all look new! I wonder if someone replaced them originally and then just decided they didn't want it, it was a thrift store find.

I'm finding it has a harder time reversing that fast forward which makes me wonder if the insides need a good lube/oil?

Perhaps others here will have some more things for me to try and look out for. Would love to hear from you!

TIA

Is there any disadvantage to having the timecode version vs the regular non-timecode version? I won't be using timecode however I might be able to get a timecode version for a lower price than what the IV-S usually sells for.

I’ve had the Nagra for a while but just picked up the 701 and it sounds great too!

i won an untested one for $14 ($30 shipping) on auction and wondering if i should go through with the payment

Hello all, I picked up a TEAC-3300 today, and I unfortunately encountered two issues upon testing:

1. No output! I can hear a little fuzz when I turn the volume way up, but it’s like the heads aren’t even connected to the output signal while the tape plays. The audio out works fine when my phone is connected to the input. I can also hear the whirring of the tape through headphones while FF and RWing.

2. The reels struggle to continue to turn while playing. They FF and RW fine, but the reels stop turning after playing for a few seconds. I’m hoping they are just seizing up due to lack of lubrication? I’ll hold off on further testing as I don’t want to burn the motor out.

If anyone has experience with this unit or something similar like the 2300, would love to hear your thoughts! Is there any hope for me to perform repairs before taking it to the shop for $500-$600?

The unit looks flawless, with the original dust jacket included.

I’m on the hunt for a modern, true stereo tape echo machine that actually records on real tape, not a digital or analog emulation. I know these are quite rare, but I’m wondering if anyone here knows of any recent models or boutique builders offering something like this.

I’ve come across options like the T-Rex Replicator, which looks promising, but I’m specifically looking for a unit that can handle true stereo output with real tape. Vintage options like the Hawk HE-2250 seem amazing, but I’d prefer something newer and more readily available.

Does anyone have recommendations or leads? I’d love to hear from anyone with experience using stereo-capable tape echo machines or ideas about where to look!

Thanks in advance for your help!

Feel free to adjust the tone or details to fit your style!

What I've already tested:
I've loosened the pinch roller, so that its moving at proper speed.
Cleaned all the wheels
Cleaned the heads (tested the speed with and without)
Different tapes.

What I know/can tell:
There doesn't seem to be any weird sounds inside.
Without a tape in the machine, everything works fine.

https://reddit.com/link/1gykvp3/video/cb95g681qs2e1/player

Any ideas?

Model: Uher Royal De Luxe C

it looks really really worn out and is not getting any playback

it is a recording and playback head, not sure how many tracks but its above 2