Slightly annoyed at myself

[Consul]

I put out a want ad on Craigslist to find people with reel-to-reel tape decks that are in working order. One lady says she has one, gives me the model number (Sony TC-350 or something like that - I'm too lazy to look at it), I look it up, and good ones are going for $100 or so, from the looks of things. I tell her I can only afford about $30 or so, she says she has extra tapes and another smaller and non-working Aiwa deck, $45 for the whole thing.

I got ripped off. But I had agreed to the price, and I decided that my word overrode my wallet, and I paid and walked away with sickly but still slightly functional gear. I have another meeting for a second deck pending, and I'm being strict this time: no offers or amounts set before I see the item.

The Aiwa deck doesn't spin up, but you can hear the motors going, and if I spin the tape manually, you can hear it play back, so I'm guessing that might be an easy repair (belt, most likely). The Sony works, but the take-up motor doesn't spin up from a stop unless you give it a push. Maybe also a belt issue?

 

[coniglius]

Bummer... I had a perfectly working 1/4" Aiwa reel to reel I got for $2 at a thrift shop. I literally put it in the trash about a week ago because it just ended up taking up space. It was only a 1-head deck, but I was planning to use as a moveable 4th head for another deck for guitar tape delay but the space issue got the better.

 

[coniglius]

The Aiwa deck doesn't spin up, but you can hear the motors going, and if I spin the tape manually, you can hear it play back, so I'm guessing that might be an easy repair (belt, most likely). The Sony works, but the take-up motor doesn't spin up from a stop unless you give it a push. Maybe also a belt issue?

Belt issue: It's easy enough to find out by cracking it open. Don't know what you were planning on doing with these but if it's for something like a tape echo rather than hi fi recording or playback then a rubber band will ofter suffice. If they're direct drive... SOL? On the bright side, there's probably $45 worth of pots, knobs, switches, odd components in those decks. There definitely was in the Aiwa I trashed but it wasn't worth my time to extract them. And you can always use the heads for DIY tape echo on a working deck. If these decks pass sound then you're even better off there. Heh,load the tape on the Aiwa and use the Sony for the take-up

 

[Consul]

Indeed, I did have a Frippertronics-like setup in mind. I also want to modify one for keyboard control of the motor speed, so I can play back a tape loop like it's an instrument. I don't know how far I'll get if I keep getting sickly equipment, though.

 

[mushy]

The [insert deity] giveth and the [insert deity] taketh away. I just scored an MX-5050BIII for free. The story was that it had transport problems and the guy didn't know how to fix them and his wife wanted the giant boat anchor on wheels out of her house. I took it home, cleaned it up and it ran just fine for me.  I think the previous owner was testing it with a bum tape.

Moral of the story: Don't give up.  Keep an eye on craigslist and gearschmucks. Deals are out there.  When the stars align, you'll find one.

 

[mnats]

The Sony works, but the take-up motor doesn't spin up from a stop unless you give it a push. Maybe also a belt issue?

Not sure if it is the same, but I have worked on a couple of TC-252s. In those machines most of the mechanics are driven by rubber tires rather than belts. It is possible the tires are worn, but more likely that the problem is with the take-up spindle.

The 252 uses a three-layered spindle composed of bakelite plates. Between the plates are rings of felt. Springs apply pressure to the felt. After time, the felt becomes compressed reducing the friction so the layers no longer mechanically couple properly.

Pull it apart and fluff up the felt with something like a wire brush. Reassemble. Repair should take a small fraction of the time it will take to create the "keyboard control of the motor speed".

 

[Consul]

... Repair should take a small fraction of the time it will take to create the "keyboard control of the motor speed".

Yeah, I still need to figure out how to do that part. I'm on the lookout for more decks, so this might not be the one I use for that.

Thank you very much for the information. I'll definitely give everything a once-over and come back with questions, I'm sure.

 

[Consul]

I just picked up a TC-105 tonight. This one is in a good bit better shape than the other. It's mono, though, whereas the other one is stereo, which kinda plays hell with idea of running a tape loop between them for echo effects. This might be the one that gets modded for keyboard control.

Ah, just did a Google search, and it is a bidirectional 4-track machine (2 one way, 2 the other), but it can only play back and record one track at a time (weird). I still don't know what that means for setting it up as a tape echo, but hey...