awty Posted December 17, 2020 Posted December 17, 2020 Hi After a tense wait a new reel to reel arrived today, "No.9". TEAC,s great, but has its limitations, 5050 has plenty of 2 track options. Took a week to get to Brisbane from Sydney with dodgy couriers please, but it did make it and the seller packaged very well. No.9 looks like its all there, but has been very used. The speed switch would only work on high, but after a clean its working again. The vu meter lights are out, will need to investigate, but every thing else seems to be working. Except the heads look very worn and doesn't play the best, so will need a professional relap and alignment. What I want to know is what type of money will I be looking at to do this? There is a place in Bowen Hills that services reel to reel, but I don't know of anywhere else. Maybe can take the headset off and post somewhere? Just asking cause I have no idea. Don't mind paying 100's to get working, but not $1000s. Thanks, and anything else I should know.
awty Posted December 17, 2020 Author Posted December 17, 2020 39 minutes ago, The Blues said: Can you post a pic of the heads
awty Posted December 17, 2020 Author Posted December 17, 2020 (edited) All ways hard to photo, but there is a slight grooving and flat spot. The two prongs dont come down far enough to disengage the tape from the heads, who knows how long it has been running like that. Edited December 17, 2020 by awty
awty Posted December 17, 2020 Author Posted December 17, 2020 Just noticed a couple of scews missing from the top plate which means it wobble, that cant be a good thing. Will givevit a good going over tomorrow and check everything and fix what I can.
koputai Posted December 17, 2020 Posted December 17, 2020 Yep, there should definitely be screws in those three holes. MX5050's were pretty much all used in radio stations, so have done untold hours of work. They are nicely build machines, and VERY sturdy, as they needed to be for their intended market. New heads were available from the factory in Japan about three years ago, not sure about now. Cheers, Jason.
awty Posted December 18, 2020 Author Posted December 18, 2020 10 hours ago, koputai said: Yep, there should definitely be screws in those three holes. MX5050's were pretty much all used in radio stations, so have done untold hours of work. They are nicely build machines, and VERY sturdy, as they needed to be for their intended market. New heads were available from the factory in Japan about three years ago, not sure about now. Cheers, Jason. Thanks Jason Will have to look around and see if I can find any heads in good condition. The local reel to reel technician says they have a large backlog of decks their servicing and not sure of the availability of replacement heads. If you know of anywhere specific to look please let me know. Apart from the heads the rest of the machine looks and seems to function well, be good to get sounding right. 1
awty Posted December 18, 2020 Author Posted December 18, 2020 (edited) Adjusted the dodad on the whats it (the adjustment for the head clering prongs and pinch wheel), looks like someone has attacked it before with a pair of pliers. Was difficult to unscew had to use a pair of vice grips to hold the bolt shaft while I adjusted, bit of lube made it a little easier, even with the spring lose it didn't want to move. Took a bit of time to find the sweet spot, too much and the pinch roller wont engage and too little and the prongs wont clear the heads. Found some srcews. Waiting for a demagnatiser and if that doesn't show up soon will make one, should have ac transformer and some magnet wire somewhere. Could be some of the course of poor playback. Edited December 18, 2020 by awty 1
t_mike Posted December 18, 2020 Posted December 18, 2020 Flux Magnetics manufacture new heads, at least for the 2 track part of it, but they come at a price. Some feedback... https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/flux-magnetic-tape-heads.581235/
koputai Posted December 18, 2020 Posted December 18, 2020 Damn you @awty, I might have to start a new lockdown project tomorrow........... Cheers, Jason.
awty Posted December 18, 2020 Author Posted December 18, 2020 11 hours ago, t_mike said: Flux Magnetics manufacture new heads, at least for the 2 track part of it, but they come at a price. Some feedback... https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/flux-magnetic-tape-heads.581235/ $800 USD! per head!, is a bit out of my price range. Still Im sure there are decent replacement heads around. There are some on ebay and Ive made contact with other sellers in the US. First mine might only need lapping, doing a bit more research I can see no gaps, so there might be still enough meat on the bone, the photos always look worse than what it is. These were made for heavy work loads, might be some life left in them yet. Also while looking through the manual I discovered I have wired my cables wrong. All the show to's have the hot cable coming from 2, this has it coming from 3. Maybe contributing to the poor play back. I had to make cables to go from xlr to rca. The way the Otari should be wired. For balanced outputs, wire the female XLR-connector as follows: 1. Connect the signal leads of a two-conductor shielded cable to pin 3 (high) and pin 2 (low) of the connector. 2. Connect the cable shield to pin 1. For unbalanced outputs using two-conductor shielded cable, wire the female XLR-connector as follows: 1. Connect the signal leads of the cable to pin 3 (high) and pin 2 (low) of the connector. 2. Connect the cable shield to pin 1 of the connector. 3. Connect a jumper from pin 1 to pin 2 of the connector. For unbalanced outputs using single-conductor shielded cable, wire the female XLR-type connector as follows: 1. Connect the center conductor cable to pin 3 of the connector. 2. Connect the cable shield to pin 2 of the connector. 3. Connect a jumper between pins 1 and 2 of the connector.
awty Posted December 18, 2020 Author Posted December 18, 2020 10 hours ago, koputai said: Damn you @awty, I might have to start a new lockdown project tomorrow........... Cheers, Jason. Well worth getting them running, much better machine than than the domestic models of the seventies. Once I get mine running properly I will put some nice timer sides on it and repaint the main front panel, that doesn't have any stenciling. The panels with stencils I will just clean up.. Oh must find where the lights for the VU are and see why they arent lighting up.
awty Posted December 19, 2020 Author Posted December 19, 2020 Well I rewired the cables and it sounds very good, little bit bright and very slight cross talk. (Could be the tape, very bad recording of a Jesus rock opera) Nothing a service couldn't fix..... i hope. Installed a couple of led's they are 2 vlt so I used 350 ohm resisters. Think I wired them right. Will double check, one vu seems a little more sensitive than the other side. Could be the recording again. They arent as bright as the photo. The leds are orange, but came out red. The feed spool tension arm has a bit too much tension, slows fast forward and rewind, need to see if that can be adjusted or I will need to use a rubber band to hold it open. 1 1
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