Tascam 38

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harrison28
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Tascam 38

Post by harrison28 » Fri Jan 18, 2019 3:32 pm

Hi guys,

Hope this questions in the right place, I picked up a tascam 38 for a couple hundred quid and have managed to (after a few tweaks and a good clean) get it up and rolling, sounding good for the most part!

My issue is on channel 2,4,6 and 7 there's no signal coming off the repro head. got signal hitting the input, and the sync head fine on those channels as shown by the vu meters, but nada on the repro head. I've been doing some research into people that have had similar issues and i saw someone say to 'reseat' something on the repro head?

I'm new to the tape game so could anyone give us a heads up on what exactly wants 're-seating' to potentially fix the problem?

Thanks!

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Re: Tascam 38

Post by drumsound » Fri Jan 18, 2019 6:43 pm

I'm not sure how the 38 is put together, but on larger machines there is an individual care for each track's input, sync and repro. Reseating is simply pulling the card and reinstalling it to make sure its making good contact. If the machine has not been used for a while, you could even take a pencil eraser and clean the contact area.

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Re: Tascam 38

Post by harrison28 » Sat Jan 19, 2019 1:07 am

Ta mate, what I was wondering is whre exactly the thing I am reseating is located in the machine.

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A.David.MacKinnon
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Re: Tascam 38

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Sat Jan 19, 2019 5:45 am

I had a 38 for years. Drumsound is right. Reseating the cards solves 90% of the issues where you have no sound and/or metering on certain channels in one mode but everything is fine in another.
You need to take the back off of the machine to get at the cards.

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I'm Painting Again
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Re: Tascam 38

Post by I'm Painting Again » Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:03 am

harrison28 wrote:
Sat Jan 19, 2019 1:07 am
Ta mate, what I was wondering is whre exactly the thing I am reseating is located in the machine.
lay the machine down with the reels facing heaven and the cards are accessible via the bottom iirc

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Re: Tascam 38

Post by harrison28 » Sat Jan 19, 2019 12:25 pm

Thanks for the help guys!

So i managed to get into the cards and reseat the ones that weren't working before, the cards are behind the input/output terminal at the back of the machine, I believe the underside is where all the calibration bits are.

The long and short is the machine is still a little unpredictable in repro. The cards I reseated are now working (at this moment), however it seems like some that were definitely working in repro yesterday now aren't. What could be causing channels to behave this way? I guess the answer is how longs a peice of string.

I was thinking about taking it apart again and maybe re-seated all of the repro heads and seeing what that does. Whilst I am at it, anything I can use to have a good clean down there? Anywhere in particular I should be looking at giving a once over?

It's a good sounding machine, just dont wanna splash on MRL tape until i've got to the bottom of this!

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I'm Painting Again
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Re: Tascam 38

Post by I'm Painting Again » Sat Jan 19, 2019 12:51 pm

if those calibration bits are also on cards pull those out -clean and re-seat them as well

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Re: Tascam 38

Post by harrison28 » Sat Jan 19, 2019 2:09 pm

Thanks, I'll have a look next time I open it up,

In terms of cleaning what would you recommend? Sorry, i'm kind of new to this.

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Re: Tascam 38

Post by I'm Painting Again » Sat Jan 19, 2019 3:28 pm

CAIG D series product (maybe followed by CAIG G series if you wanna go bananas) if the contacts are extremely dirty and oxidized you might need to use the concentrate and a brush otherwise the spray is good for general purpose - you can try a pencil eraser as someone suggested too but the benefit of the chemical treatment is way superior

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Re: Tascam 38

Post by I'm Painting Again » Sat Jan 19, 2019 3:37 pm

I have a different but similar machine and the spray is what i use -prolly what most people use in general

a tech who is an expert in tascam teac might have a good trick or further insight - good to find those folks if you can - i learned everything about Ampex from the Ampex mailing list - it was sort of a group email thing with a website containing resources for those trying to keep tape alive

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Re: Tascam 38

Post by jimjazzdad » Sun Jan 20, 2019 7:12 am

Most problems on the Tascam 32/34/38 tape decks is where the various cards seat in the motherboard. If re-seating the cards doesn't do the trick, you might even have to resolder the connectors - apparently there were quality problems with the flow soldering of the PCBs on these models occasionally. FWIW, I have a Tascam 32 that had signal missing on the repro head and cleaning and re-seating did the trick. There is lots of info and expert help over on the Tapeheads.org reel to reel thread.
Jim Legere
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harrison28
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Re: Tascam 38

Post by harrison28 » Sun Jan 20, 2019 10:26 am

brilliant, thanks for the help once again. I'll get some Deoxit in there and try re-seating everything. Will report back!

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