Tascam 388 Saga

[kslight]

My county (and supporting counties) is under 30 day stay at home orders and one of my goals has been to fire up ye olde Tascam 388 and put some synth stuff to tape. And that’s what I’ve been doing.

However there’s been a constant buzz in the headphone mixer and dBx section....did not record but it was always there just harder to hear when things were going on. I noticed the sound modulated while web browsing...because of my proximity to the router and general laziness I have one of those Ethernet over power gadgets. Which so far I’d never noticed an issue with. Well I unplugged that and now no more buzz.

Then was rewinding and hit the play button to stop (I always thought this was the most gentle way to stop?) and the whole transport goes dead. We’ve been down that road, this particular machine has been well serviced and already had motors rebuilt... so I checked the capstan belt..which was of course fine (I had changed it a couple years ago). Then i checked the fuses...sure enough, one soldier dead.

So now back in business, just have to remember how I had it all wired up....



Just thought I’d share, since I think it would be frowned upon for me to visit my tech at this time.

Hope you all are staying safe out there, I expect many musicians and small business owners on this board are getting hit or getting ready to be hit pretty hard. I know more people now that are in trouble from this situation than not. Musicians, tour staff, tattoo artists, hair stylists, service industry workers, small business owners....and then anyone that generally needs to collect a paycheck (raises hand). I still am going in to work but I would be lying if I said my anxiety hasn’t been high for the last couple weeks (as though we are still working many of our clients are at a total stand still).

[standup]

I dropped a Tascam 234 with a local tech the weekend before this hit. I may not get it back until whenever this is over. I replaced the belts, but it was still wonky. He’s replacing the pinch roller and fed/rev “tires”. And checking my work on the belts.

A friend in California is sending a cassette, I’ll use my Peavey (not kidding) 4-track to dub something on it. I may start up another cassette project.

[kslight]

Yeah, I’d definitely be afraid of losing something for an indefinite period of time, especially when techs aren’t always that quick to begin with.

I kind of regret not having my 238 and 688 anymore. But for some reason always gravitate towards the 388.