TP-028, Nat Adderley's Work Song is now available

Author Topic: Praise for Athan  (Read 6405 times)

Offline kipdent

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Praise for Athan
« on: June 26, 2010, 02:32:30 PM »
All,

A few weeks ago one of the four tension rollers on my Studer A80 RC MK II started making a little noise during FF and rewind. I knew Athan Corp. offered replacement bearings and I thought of doing just the offending one myself, but I decided to use this event as an excuse to send in my capstan motor, too, for a complete rebuild. My machine's serial number apparently dates the unit to about 1982 and I thought it doubtful such a complete service had ever been done on it. With only about 2800 hours on the clock, age alone made me think it would be wise to get the bearings and seals replaced--plus, George sandblasts the capstan's shaft to look like new as part of the rebuild. So, about two weeks ago I packaged up both sets of tension rollers and the capstan motor and off they went to Athan.

Yesterday everything came back and boy am I one happy customer. The rollers and motor were just pristine, and the transport now seems silkier than ever. I am ecstatic with George's professional, quality work, and grateful such a resource exists. To me, this last little bit of tweaking has allowed me to feel I have traveled back to 1982 and picked up a brand new machine. To celebrate the completion of the project, I spooled up TP-016 and sat back for an evening of sonic bliss. What a fun hobby this is!

Here are some pictures of the work done by Athan. Check it out!

http://gallery.me.com/kip/100139
Kip Peterson
Vintage-centric system with Apogee Acoustics Scintilla ribbon loudspeakers, Micro Seiki RX-5000 turntable and other odd bits of tube and solid state gear. Now a proud owner of a Studer A80 RC Mk II tape machine!