was super excited to get my friends old tascam 488 mkII. however, when i pressed play, record, fast forward, rewind, pause or stop it would make this grinding noise, and the play, pause, and record buttons would start flashing. the tape and the head mechanism don't seem to move at all (engage or disengage). i opened it up, and even brought it to my tech, and it seems that the problem is that some of the gears for the head mechanism are broken.
this seems to be a common problem, and ive read multiple accounts of people changing the gears and the machine starting up again. however, my tech said that the gears would have to be aligned, and that this is a tough job and not really worth it. he's an extremely brilliant synth tech, however he doesnt really work with tape machines, so i was wondering if anyone else has had to do this, and if its an easy job or not. really want to get this thing working, sort of planned for it to be the centerpiece of my studio
this seems to be a common problem, and ive read multiple accounts of people changing the gears and the machine starting up again. however, my tech said that the gears would have to be aligned, and that this is a tough job and not really worth it. he's an extremely brilliant synth tech, however he doesnt really work with tape machines, so i was wondering if anyone else has had to do this, and if its an easy job or not. really want to get this thing working, sort of planned for it to be the centerpiece of my studio