mx5050mkIII global recap? worth it?

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arkestra
alignin' 24-trk
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mx5050mkIII global recap? worth it?

Post by arkestra » Fri Oct 16, 2009 6:17 pm

I just picked up one of these for real cheap. Im pretty good with tech and trouble shooting and have recapped many things. This deck is from '87 and plays back fine, transport is fine, heads are ok but the record sounds like something is off. Big bump at 100 and kind of harsh top end, a bit distorted and noisy. (on all channels)

So, I know this will need an alignment and calibration, guessing bias is off (using unused 456 for testing). Need to bake an mrl tape.
until then, is it worth the time to recap the cards? there are a ton of caps on these. Also, would I need to recap the bias, erase, etc. section or only the sections dealing with audio? Im guessing I should do any recap BEFORE alignment and calibration. Yes?

I am willing to put some cash into this because it is in pretty good shape and I want to use this as my personal machine and do it right. What do you think?

also, anyone rotated the tape guides on these? Including the tension arm guides? I could not get them to turn and dont want to force them... thanks

ofajen
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Post by ofajen » Fri Oct 16, 2009 9:46 pm

I personally would not even consider touching a single cap until I had done a complete playback and record alignment and calibration using a known good calibration tape and blank tape stock known to be good. There are so many things that could be off and causing misbehavior.

Even then, i probably wouldn't bother, but then that's just me. I'd assume that the thing will be doing much better once you've done the alignment (or that something else is seriously wrong, such as worn heads, etc.) and that you'd want to get on with rolling tape rather than spending immense amounts of time breathing solder fumes, but then we each have our own ideas of fun! :)

Cheers,

Otto
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The Scum
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Post by The Scum » Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:13 pm

I agree that you should doublecheck all of the obvious suspects, and get things as solid as possible before getting into recapping.

I'm not sure how far I'd trust an MRL tape that needed baking...

A friend was having trouble with hum in his console, so he decided to do a bunch of recapping. And so after a bunch of caps purchased, and a bunch of time spent swapping them out, he found a couple caps on the master module that had been sheared clean off at some time in the past. Replacing them fixed the hum. (it's the reverse of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" - "If it is broke, fix it first.")

And when you get to the recap, do all of the electrolytics and tantalums. Ceramics and film caps should be OK.

arkestra
alignin' 24-trk
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Joined: Fri May 14, 2004 12:47 pm
Location: Northampton, MA

Post by arkestra » Sat Oct 17, 2009 9:39 am

cool. thanks for the opinions. I should probably spend the cash on an MRL tape before caps.

ofajen
pushin' record
Posts: 258
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2005 9:13 am
Location: Columbia, MO

Post by ofajen » Sat Oct 17, 2009 10:24 am

Oh, yeah... harsh top end and noise could easily be a seriously under-biased condition that can be fixed by a proper setting of the bias level once the playback is calibrated. Just one example of why you must do the proper alignment first.

Cheers,

Otto
Daddy-O Daddy-O Baby

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