Roland SRE-555 Space echo help

[API]

This is actually not technically a Space Echo but the rack version of the later 501 echo from Roland.

Either way, this was a little sad when i got my hands on it but is now all cleaned up, new pinch roller, new reverb tank, new felts, new tape  and the whole tape path cleaned with isopropanol.
Eveything now works but the repeats are quite distorted, not so much fluttery and wobbly, more like the tape have been hit to hard.
But even if i trim down the input volume its still distorted.

Anyone have any insight on what could be wrong?
I have not demagnetized the heads but i dont think that is the problem since the repeats are very strong, just a bit distorted.

 

[beatnik]

is the distortion present also with dry signal only?

if not might be just a calibration issue

but if the unit is already well calibrated i would recommend following the circuit with an audio probe and see at what stage the distortion kicks in

another thing i would recommend with vintage roland stuff is a complete recap job, those purple ones are buggers, and also changing the opamps, those tend to crap out quite often as well

 

[API]

Hi.

No, the direct signal is not distorted, just the echoes.
I have tried to calibrate it,  but the problem is still there.

I thought about recapping the whole thing just beacuse, i have heard stories about those caps, but not so many purple ones in there though, most are black.
But is a good thing to do either way and i will check the opamps as well.

Lets start there and i will see how it goes, and if someone else have any ideas i would love to hear them.

 

[psych60s]

If your tape is good and the calibration has been done, check the bias for the record head. Don't have the service manual with me right now but you should find something about that. Demagnetizing the heads is definetely not a bad idea.

It would be easy to see what's wrong in there by feeding a sine and test with a scope. An IC could be defective as well.