Space Echo Head Refurbishment

[ryansupak]

Hi, I'm posting this thread because I've yet to find anything on the internet with comprehensive information about the refurbishment or replacement of Roland Space Echo heads.

I thoroughly cleaned and demagnetized my heads, used Rubber Cleaner on the Pinch Roller, and replaced the tape. But, my performance is still terrible. The Space Echo is supposed to be "warm" but it shouldn't sound like a Low Pass Filter is applied to the feedback at 1500Hz either. (Apparently one of the signs of extremely worn tape heads is that high-frequency response is lost and there are sometimes complete dropouts.)

I tracked down a company called JRF Magnetics. They have the largest remaining stock of NOS Tape Heads anywhere, including the dual-coil "humbucking" heads that a Space Echo requires.

For about $375 (as of Feb 2011) they will mechanically modify (1x) NOS Record head and (3x) NOS Playback heads to work with the Space Echo, and set them up properly. The Erase Head apparently is not prone to going bad and can remain. (I think the price would be slightly higher for a machine with more heads -- I have an RE-201.)

Basically you mail them the Head Assembly (a metal piece slightly larger than a harmonica) and they perform the work. They also told me that it might be possible to re-lap some of the heads instead of replacing them -- and this would be a bit cheaper -- but it differs case-by-case. (Relapping is a process that involves sanding and re-shaping the head, from what I know about it.)

I'm about to ship my Head Assembly off to them. They estimated it would take them (1) week to perform the work once received. I will report back on how the process went.

rs

[ulriggribbons]

The question that springs to mind is are you sure it's the head stack that is the problem?

JRF does great work, but there are electronics, felts, and tape tension to be considered as well. My experience has been that space echos can sometimes be finicky that way.

Just sayin it would be a shame to spend $375 to find out it isn't the problem.

Regards

Jon

[ryansupak]

I found a copy of the Service Manual, which tells you all about tape tension, the felt pressure settings, etc... I was able to rule that stuff out. I also calibrated the Record Level, Bias, etc... using the Service Manual.

It could be an electronics issue but everything else about the unit is perfectly responsive and acting as it should. It just fails the "test tone" test. Judging by the way the heads look (not so good), I think heads are a pretty good guess.

Thanks,
rs

[drumsound]

John French does great work, and I'm sure if he can do a relap and save you money, he will.

[Harry]

I don't know about new heads but OrbitElectronic....http://www.orbitelectronix.com/

seems to do about everything else.

SO for about $375 + about $250 + the cost of a fucked up Space Echo
You should still be able to get a great machine for less than a fulltone TTE

In my opinion there is nothing like a Space Echo. It's an instrument. Once you really learn how to play it it does amazing things.

[Darlington Pair]

What did you use to de-mag the heads? Improperly demagged heads can be worse than not doing it at all or if you have something like the little radio shack guy it's just not strong enough to get the job done, I recommend the Hand-d-mag.

What are you using for tape? The wrong tape could be your issue also, not everybody that sells space echo tape is telling you the truth about what it is, I've seen some rotten problems that were solved by just putting the right tape in.

Also, the input impedance of space echoes is miserably low, this loads pickups down and dulls the sound, running a buffer with high input impedance and low output should help. Or you can add a Jfet buffer to the front end pretty easily, I did a much more complicated version of this, but there is an easy one on Billy Zoom's forum at the gretsch pages.