Scully 280b in todays world

Hey! I just grabbed a scully 280b for a real good price, and thought id ask people about it's performance in todays world.

I hear ALL the tape shredding horror stories, which i feel like there's gotta be some kind of modern day solution too. 

Any users? Got any tips/mods/schematics?

Info is scarce. Im on the yahoo group, but that site causes me nothing but problems.

IIRC DIY member Bo Hansen uses and speaks highly of 280b's.  He may be someone to contact ?

No shredded tape on my 280B ever, but boy does that thing get moving scary fast. The 280 you need to be more diligent as a tape op to avoid tape spillage.

Noisy1 said:

No shredded tape on my 280B ever, but boy does that thing get moving scary fast. The 280 you need to be more diligent as a tape op to avoid tape spillage.

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Have you done any replacements on the machine? Like maintenence wise?

Im kinda picking through mine slowly.

Yup. Fully recapped the power supply and record/playback electronics. Replaced all the transistors for lower noise and more modern specs. Also, replaced all the record/playback electronics "switchlight bulbs" with LEDs. Pretty straight forward and easy to work on. I think I was able to source everything from Mouser. I might even have a cart put together if it is helpful, though a lot of the time it is easier to make your own component decisions than work through someone else's choices. Just did it a couple months ago so the part numbers should be relatively available still and not have gone obsolete.

Just reworked the 280B. Haven't touched the 280 yet and there is an Ampex MM-1200 24-track to be rebuilt first, so it might be a long while until that project sees the light of day.

If you don't mind sharing that info, im about to do the same actually. That'd be a big help!

Pretty much all my bulbs are burned. Id much rather l.e.d. it. Mines early too, so i gotta add in some lighting functions. And those unobtainium raysistors im scared of!

Anybody has a later revision logic board or the motion sense tape idler parts let me know!

We in the same boat here in Barcelona , a 16 Track on 2" . Really don't know how to identify the model correctly.

The transport works reasonably well , all turns on , but only achieve to record and play from 1 track. Need to cross the working channel with the other tracks ones and see what happen.

I have a 1 ton paper docs with schemas and manuals , let know if someone need something.