Otari MX 5050 b2HD Heads Relapping

[twinbugles52]

Greetings all:

I aquired a used MX5050 B2HD recently, and it has been well used, but all functions perform as they should. During teardown for service, I noticed that the Record and both Reproduce heads had considerable wear, a finding verified by the techs at Inner Sound in Portland, Or. They advised me to send them to Sprague Magnetics. I contacted Sprague Magnetics, and was informed that they no longer did head relapping for RTR machines, but a tech that used to do them in-house now has a business doing head relapping.

His name is John Austin. Contact info is: [email protected], or call 818-523-7487

 John quoted me a price of $50 per head for relapping. I sent him the entire head stack, which he evaluated, informing me that the heads had about 50% wear, and were able to be relapped, which he did to the 1 record head and 2 reproduce heads, for a total of $150 + $15 shipping to return them. The price included laser realignment of the heads. Turnaround time was 1 day!
I will post again when the deck is back together.

Is it OK to post pics? If so, I will include some later.

Cheers!
Bill

[ironbut]

Sounds great Bill.
Do you know if he does other reel to reel repairs?

Please provide the city where John is located. While it isn't a big deal to ship a head or two, it might make a difference to some members.

I hope you won't mind but I moved this thread here so it won't get buried like it would in another forum.