We finally finished a manual for the Otari MX-5050 tape path mod kit. This officially ends our in house mods, and puts both the Technics and Otari tape path mods into the hands of the machine owner in order to save money and avoid the shipping damage we saw due to inadequately packed decks being sent to us for the mods. This basic tape path upgrade for the Otari should give you about 85% of what we were able to achieve with this mod in conjunction with replacing the fixed guides on the head block.
Replacing those head block guides with ball bearings to get that last 15% is only possible on decks with the multi-part fixed guides with dark brown ceramic edge guides - lots of machines have one piece stainless guides that can't be modded. Getting those multi-part guides apart is a real bear, as documented on the forum by one or two posters. We may offer an "advanced kit" for that mod, for those who have the mod-able guides and who are willing to take full responsibility for getting them apart without breaking them. Takes a heat gun, a bench vise, channel locks, some kind of sticky padding to keep from gouging the spacers with the vice and channel lock teeth, and a reasonably well developed vocabulary of expletives.
http://www.bottlehead.com/store.php?crn=223&rn=456&action=show_detail