Post
by shedshrine » Wed May 13, 2009 8:57 pm
His name is Lawrence, goes by Rance, and his shop is called Rance Electronics in Berkeley. (Sorry, can't recall his last name)
Might as well re-post the whole aquisition story as it covers alot of setup involved with getting a reel to reel deck.
"I got it in my noggin that I wanted another Tascam 388. I had four reels kicking around that I'd filled from my first go round with one I bought new in 1988 that I wanted to transfer, and I also had a jones to get back into tape.
I was fiending pretty bad, nothing was coming up local on craigslist, but there were usually at least a couple on ebay. Finally, an auction came up for one advertised as basically never having been used, with a colorful story behind it ..and no pictures. A couple emails back and forth before auction end and I use the buy it now. It's mine for $600.00
I end up with his phone number and we talk several times. Guy sounds cool, elderly guy who's contracted ms, used to be a studio musician in Philly in the seventies and eighties. He said he'd bought the last unopened box unit the music store had had, and though he ended up not being able to use it, kept it as inspiration to fight the ms. Said he had kept it in the livingroom to look at. I bought the story, and didn't insist on pics.
Longer story short, after a harrowing week and a half getting the shipping together on his end, I get it. I had it shipped 3 day air to minimize conveyor belt drops, and paid to have it professionally packed. I get it home and man handle it into the livingroom where I grab a kitchen knife to cut through all the packing tape.
As soon as I get a decent size cut going along one side, I pull up to look inside. Phew! Huge blast of cigarette stench that only gets stronger with each cut of bubble wrap. There is a coating on the face of the thing, and especially on the rear connections, which I guess never got wiped down.
Making things worse was that the seller lived in a severely humid area, the florida keys no less, so there is the beginnings of corrosion in several places. I'm crushed, frustrated and mad all at the same time.
I call the guy, who says," why yes I do smoke, why?" and "Well, down here everything starts to rust eventually". Of course smokers don't tend to notice the heavy smell that builds in their homes, and the effects of humidity there are so matter of fact, that the "meager" corrosion of the deck is comparatively mint in his eyes.
But, the reel to reel section has been protected all these years by the plexiglass cover and though smells a bit, fine. The heads are indeed pristine. Not having a variac, I just plug it in to see what happens. Everything lights up, 10 beautiful vu meters. I run a signal, and am surprised at the sound quality. Things aren't so bad afterall.
Encouraged, I scrub the entire thing, and the connections especially take some serious finger-numbing scrubbing. Initially with alcohol swabs for the cigarette tar, and then brasso on the chrome. Amazingly, it almost entirely comes off. Great.
I have already ordered and received a few rolls of 457, a new capstan belt as the original was complete goo, a new pinchroller and a handimag. The original pinchroller, 17 years new, is good as new after just a bit of scrubbing with a wet qtip, and turns smoothly giving accurate readout with a little machine oil. Fine.
I load up tape, and it lurches and stops. I fuss with positioning the tension arms and can get it turning a bit if I hold them, but on it's own it's just not happening. Fine, I was planning on having a tech check it out anyway.
I take it to the tech across the bay on a day off, as early as I can, planning to just hang around there in Berkeley til he calls. There's no call for quite awhile so I stop back by. He had been troubleshooting all afternoon and finally determined that the servo tension controllers are corroded, and won't allow precise adjustments. Shit!
The servo controllers are all located under a grill opening on the top deck above the vu meters. (the earliests 388s produced didn't have this grill) He needs to get some parts, so we set up a pickup date a week later.
I get there as he's opening the shop as he's agreed to let me watch him work. He has all the cool tools, and whips out a hakko desoldering gun to swap out the tiny parts. Finally everything is calibrated and up to spec and ready to rock.
All told my $600 ebay Tascam 388 ended up costing me around $1300. New, they sold for $3100 - 3300. In any case, while it didn't turn out to be the sweetest deal, the thing runs like a tank now. It's pots are scratchy here and there, and the record light for channel three doesn't light up when depressed, but these are extremely minor issues."
The end.
I was going to get one last year but got sidetracked.
