TASCAM Repair

[GuitarAttack Forum]

All - my recording journey went from tape to digital about 20 years ago. My last tape machine was a TASCAM 488 Mk II and I felt I made some good recordings with it for a six to seven year period.

When I got the computer music going iI put this in storage, never to power it up again…until a few weeks ago.

After a few tries, I realized it needed some maintenance. I ordered a new belt and, with some help of some YouTube videos, I was able to get it going. The old belt was the consistency of tar, and it took a long time to clean it up. Also, there must of been fifty screws holding this rig together!

I popped in an old tape and was pleasantly surprised at the sound of the analog goodness. I am going to do some songs on it and try out my 8-track chops again.

Safety Tip: if you have an older tape machine, make sure you keep it maintained.

John

[antares]

Good advice- I have to replace the eject drive belt in my MiniDisc on a regular but thankfully infrequent basis. I have an old Sony reel to reel John and I bought a belts service kit for it which is around here somewhere(!) I haven't carried out the work because I suspected that I would wind up with tape head alignment issues and potentially other gotchas. Call me a coward and I'll take it on the chin because I only bought it from a work colleague who needed the space (like I didn't!) and I pretty much intended it for show only. Other gear takes up the limited available space now so it lives up in the attic with two spare vinyl decks!

でつ e&oe ...

[Deleted]

I had one of those. That was a long time ago. Can you still get tapes for it? I have not messed around with anything as far as making recordings go. All I do now is what I do off of my cell phone.

 Good to see this, though. I did a lot of demo tapes for people back in the late 90's early 2,000's. I did some on this kind of thing and used my soundboard. I had a recording studio in my home at that time. It was called my living room. LOL!

 I had so much fun doing tapes for people. Got to meet a lot of talented people. I was able to help some back then land some record deals. One gal was able to sell off her songs and made pretty good money doing that. All because of the demo tapes. I would give anything to do that again. Make demos for people, that is.

 Thanks for posting. It sure did bring back some cool memories.

EB