Evaluating head wear

[percussion boy]

How would I get an evaluation of the heads on my Otari 5050 8 track?

[bigtoe]

hey there-

jrfmagnetics.com

nice guys on the phone. i think i was quoted 350 for a relap on all three heads but he said the erase head might not need it and wouldn't do anything that didn't need to be done so the eval is obviously implied. i called em about a couple months ago...

i think atr service company (atrservice.com) services heads too...not just ampex...but i could be wrong...super nice peeps there too...

Mike

[Drumbeast]

Any tips on what to look for visualy? The shop near me has an Otari 24 track 2" so after i cleaned up the drool i took a look at the heads to make is seem to my friends that i knew what i was doing. Is there anything to look for?

[@?,*???&?]

Visually, it's pretty easy to detect head wear.

Clean the heads and then shine a flashlight on the heads. Look at each individually. There should be a noticeable area where the tape makes the most contact with the head. Many hours of tape traveling over the heads will wear down the head at this most stressful point. Sort of like filing off the top of a mountain. I've found this area to be almost the direct middle of the head. If the head is exhibiting signs of wear, you'll see a pattern that flares near the top of the head and near the bottom as well and runs across all tracks. It flares because the tape tension is most firm in the center and not near the edges.

Quantegy/Ampex tape is not cut nearly as critically as BASF/EMTEC tape is with regard to width.

Typically, you'll get 3 lappings out of a set of heads. Look at a 15khz tone played back on the outer tracks and if the tone is jumping around the VU's and you have the flaring, you're probably due for a re-lap.

[percussion boy]

Thanks, Jeff. I'll take a look this weekend.

Mike - Thanks for the hookups. $350 would be fine. Sounds like I'll be learning how to detach the head assembly soon.

Have a better one . . .

[Fletcher]

If the head is exhibiting signs of wear, you'll see a pattern that flares near the top of the head and near the bottom as well and runs across all tracks. It flares because the tape tension is most firm in the center and not near the edges..

...and if it 'flares' more at the top than at the bottom [or vise versa] then you have a transport tension problem that needs to be addressed.

The two other ways you can easily tell that you're overdue for a lapping is when you can't bias the machine... and when edits won't play [you hear a small 'skip' at the edit point]

BTW, JRF's phone number is 973-579-5773... they're the ONLY place that does heads that I would trust with the heads from my machine... but YMMV.