Tascam 52 doesn't record

[Wirenut]

I picked up a Tascam 52 from a friend the other day. We played back some old tapes we recorded in the late 80’s on Ampex 456 that sounded great. I bought the deck from him and brought it home. I purchased some NOS scotch 151 Mylar/poly and tried to record. I got the meters bouncing around 0db and everything was looking good. I pressed the record button and let it go for about 2 minutes. When I played it back…..all I got was some crackling noises around what would have been the peeks of the song. I took the same tape and put it on an old Akai 4000DS deck and it recorded fine. I was also able to playback the same tape back on the Tascam 52 and it sounded pretty good. I’m sure it sat for a while however it was well covered and also there is no pitting or rust on the heads or tape path.

Does anyone here have any experience with these things? What do you suggest I look at first?

Wirenut.

[westgate]

the very first thing i do with any new to me deck is clean the heads and guides with at least 91% isopropyl alcohol on q-tips. really scrub them.
then do it again.

some older tapes may have 'sss' or 'sticky shed syndrome'. the tape leaves oxide residue as it passes over the heads and guides and can really gum things up and inhibit the sound.

YMMV

[vinyldavid]

Relays. A friend of mine has a 44OB and a 48, and both have had relay issues....

[Wirenut]

*eyepop*Relays. A friend of mine has a 44OB and a 48, and both have had relay issues....

Where are the relays located that you mention?

[vinyldavid]

*eyepop*

Where are the relays located that you mention?

no clue where they are in the 52....

[Skywavebe]

DIP relays have been more a problem back in the 30 series decks as some of the coils were nicked when they were made. The 44OB and 52 units have not had any relay problems that I am aware of as a history. In a place where high humidity and dirty smoke environment the equipment could be having troubles due to that. I would take the audio cards out and reseat them a couple of times. Then check again.
The Tascam 52 does not belong anywhere near a Scotch 151 tape. That is very old tape and only going to provide a poor quality recording at best.
Use of a tape like SM911, ATR Master or if older tapes 3M 250 , 226 or some of the working 456 or 499 type tapes.
I have a couple at my house now and one on the bench as well.
They also have electrolytic caps in them so that could be it too. The relays would be on those cards behind the meters- take 4 screws out and the meters pull out and then swing down. Be careful when doing this I have seen some fuses burned out due to meter lamp terminals touching metal.

[Emo-Fan]

I bought a TEAC 3440 multi-tracker in MINT condition. The guy is a friend of mine and sold it to me at a great price and even threw in a few tapes. I brought it home and wanted to do a few test recordings with my Denon professional test CD. One of the free tapes was an Ampex 7 inch reel STILL IN THE SHRINKWRAP, so I chose that one, thinking it was pristine. I recorded some test tones from the CD plaayer and played the recordings back. I got the exact same symptoms that are described above. I also noticed these shards of what looked like black hair coming out of the head assembly. The guy I bought the deck from was a barber,s so naturally my first thought was that he must have had this thing stored near his hair care products. But no...it was the AMPEX tape!

So I got out a bottle of isopropyl alcohol (91 %) and swabbed that deck. Nothing. The I-alcohol would even touch the problem (though a lot of black goop came off). Time for the heavy artillery... denatured alcohol. Yup. Cleaned it right up.

I-alcohol has a strange lubricant in it intended to be a soothing rub down. D-alcohol leaves no residue. I poured a few drops on a clean glass table top and let it evaporate. It left not so much as a drop-sized watermark. If you use it on your tape heads, it'll clean everything off, just DON'T GET ANY ON THE RUBBER PARTS!!

I've talked to other guys (one of whom owns a great Otari) and he does the same thing.

[Jay Pemberton]

And if you take that tape with the buzzy test recording, and try recording silence over it, and discover that the old recording is still there unchanged, you'll have what I think a large part of the problem is: a dead bias oscillator.