Aging DP-32 Blues

[-mjk-]

Took my DP-32 out of the carry bag to use it today and found 1/2 of an input knob on the bottom of the bag. The knobs are all deteriorating, including the fader caps. It looks like I have a new set of everything in my future because once that starts happening it really can't be stopped. I use mine mainly as a field recorder these days and it's still such a fantastic unit (especially the original ones like mine, with MIDI). Taiwan is notorious for disintegrating plastics and the DP-32 has not escaped this inevitability.

 

[shredd]

How odd. I also have an O/G ‘32 w MIDI…plastics are fine. Must be the weather there - unless of course it’s a manufacturing conspiracy by china to break the morale of the Taiwanese by sabotaging the production of units for that country?!?

 

[-mjk-]

The latter. I bought the unit in The Netherlands but somehow Tascam knew.

The weather is sub-tropical with it being tropical below the Tropic of Cancer (which cuts across Taiwan). Most plastics degrade in a few years.

 

[shredd]

Thas’ a dragg alright. I never realized a tropical climate would do that to plastics. Or it is something else? Temps? Pollution?

 

[Mark Richards]

Sorry to hear that, mj. Humidity is a killer. Even where I am in TN, the humidity has been way above normal year round, and my DP-24's knobs have become sticky on top. I haven't yet found a solution. There may not be one. At least TASCAM should be able to provide replacements easily.

 

[shredd]

TASCAM should be able to provide replacements easily

I'mma gonna say that this is a major flaw of Tascam (and a lot of other co's that make MTR's and other gear): they make it painfully difficult to access/acquire even the simplest replacement parts.
I'm not talking circuit board parts and chips; I'm talking knobs, power supplies, etc. It's like you have to haveta have a replacement slider knob approved and designed by NASA, and then requisition funding through congress.

One of the reasons I've been on the MTR bandwagon (as opposed to tape/mechanical devices) for a lotta years is that they tend to be pretty reliable (way more than the DAW/puter-based recording setups I've tried!). I've never had one flake out/go bad, either from s/ware issues or mechanical/control failure, let alone component failure. Knock on wood!

 

[mnkorte]

Ah man, sorry to hear that! I did find a bunch of caps on reverb.com, they are about $12 USD a piece:

DP-32 Parts

I plan on driving my DP-24 (with midi) until the wheels falls off and then purchasing a Model 2400 down the road lol. Being in Long Island, NY, the humidity isn't terrible, and so far I have been lucky with the plastics. Hoping to get a few more years out of it!

 

[shredd]

caps on reverb.com, they are about $12 USD a piece:

DP-32 Parts

That is freekin' obscene.
Decorum prevents me from imparting what I think of this.

 

[mnkorte]

@shredd LOL Agreed! That is robbery. I'd be tempted to pick one up if I only needed one.

I wonder if anyone has posted STL files for the knobs/faders for 3D printing? I'll scour the webs today to see if I can find anything.

 

[shredd]

That is robbery. I'd be tempted to pick one up if I only needed one.

I could see indulging this absurd pricing if perhaps you had ONE (or a couple) to replace - lost, broken, etc. - just to have a complete set, rather than the odd bare control shaft/slider.
But in a case like MJ's - where potentially most/all knobs/sliders would need replacing - this is a shameful outrage. By my head-math calculations, a full set of sliders and the knobs for a DP-32 would be nearly US$400. That is nothing short of prison-rape.

I wonder if anyone has posted STL files for the knobs/faders for 3D printing?

That would be an amazing application of the technology. I myself have benefitted from this: I own the lovely Roland Juno-06a synth module, which I play via MIDI through my Roland GAIA. And I paid barely US$28 for a pair of 3D-printed "feet" that click into the slots of the unit that are meant to hold it into that silly little micro-keyboard thing they sell - which places it on my KB stand at a perfect angle for adjusting controls during play.

And someone printing those knobs would make a fortune on it, assuming Tascam/whoever didn't "sic" a busload of million-dollar lawyers on them.

 

[-mjk-]

I'll just order some knobs on Shopee Taiwan, lol. I'm not going to obsess over original spec knobs. But I sure was surprised when one of the original spec knobs literally broke in half due to deterioration.

 

[shredd]

Good call...a DP w non-original knobs will still be a DP. Great machine. But it's pretty appalling that plastic things fall apart like that...is it everything plastic? How do you keep your gear intact (not to mention every other thing made of plastic)??

EDIT:
I jes’ remembered: at one point I wuz thinking about putting all new knobs on a mixer, to get the colors of the different control categories sorted out the way I liked.
I rooted around on ebay and found OODLES, and cheap…Amazon too…and I’mma betting there’s slider knobs too.

 

[Phil Tipping]

Not had anything fall apart (yet), but the real pita for me is plastic where the outer layer turns into a sticky goo. Most items with a non-slip surface have gone this way over the years from camcorders & binoculars to knobs on musical gear. It seems to be an age thing, or maybe environment, certainly nothing to do with usage or contaminants from fingers.
The internet is full of solutions for this (pun intended), but I've found each item behaves differently so there's no magic bullet, e.g. methylated spirits (denatured alcohol) varied from having no effect, working a treat, to removing all colouring leaving the item white - so be warned!
Current gear undergoing surgery is an Elektron Octatrack, where the once lovely tactile push buttons are developing a horrible sticky feel.

 

[shredd]

This is all pretty bizarre for me to read about. I live the the Rocky Mountain region of the western US - it’s so dry here that just breathing makes your lungs harden.
So humidity (if that’s what’s doing this to plastics) isn’t a factor in deterioration…unless you count bad skin…