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Author Topic: New member here currently have Technics RS-1500  (Read 5597 times)

Offline 79_Limited

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New member here currently have Technics RS-1500
« on: May 25, 2009, 02:49:30 PM »
Hello all,

I am a new member here to what definitely appears to be a great forum.  I recently acquired a Technics RS-1500 deck from a buddy on a trade.  I have not fired it up yet (I am still looking to purchase tape) and will be working on cleaning it and getting it in good working order.  My primary use for a tape machine will be as a 2 track master recorder for my home studio. 

Here are pics of the recorder and my home studio at the bottom of the page.

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-much-gear-so-little-time/149203-pics-new-studio-console-etc-2.html



Greg
Technics RS-1500

Offline ironbut

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Re: New member here currently have Technics RS-1500
« Reply #1 on: May 25, 2009, 04:36:10 PM »
Welcome to the forum 79 (btw, we use our real names around here. You can add it to your signature in the control panel so you don't have to do it every post).
You certainly can't beat the price you got your Technics for, and you have quite a home studio going there, congratulations!
The best thing you can do for yourself is to buy the service manuals (vol 1&2) for it. Unfortunately I don't know of a place that you can download them for free but they come up on eBay and the regular places like Stereo Manuals (online store).

While your waiting for you manual you should check out the Beginners Guide which is above this forum in a sticky( it's meant to pick up where the owners manuals leave off). The links sticky is also very useful for resources and info.

If you've never worked on a reel to reel it's almost like a cross between working on a car and a piece of audio electronics. Much of what you'll need to clean and adjust are mechanical items such as brakes and bearings. The brakes are kinda the weak point of these machines. They usually work just fine when your running 7" reels especially at 7.5 ips but when you put a 10.5" reel on it the weakness of brakes won't stop the reels quite as quickly as it should and some slack will form between the two reels. This allows one or both of the tensioners (the top guides that move up and down) to travel to the top where an auto switch will keep the machine from responding to play, rewind, or fast forward. This is the switch stops the machine at the end of a tape. If this happens, you have to turn one of the reels to pick up the slack which pulls down one of the tensioners so play/ff/rewind can be engaged. Some people don't really mind doing this since getting those brakes just right is almost a black art.

Get yourself some empty reels and tape. If can avoid it, don't buy your supplies from eBay until you know what you really want. There are bargains to be had but some things like aluminum reels are so easy to get bent or some tapes can turn sticky and aren't worth the shipping costs (in fact it can take an hour to clean your machine every time you play one of these).

A good place to buy supplies and tape is US Recording Media. There are cleaning instructions and a list of things you might need in the Beginners Guide. US Recording Media has some excellent info on their site too. Kurt has allowed me to copy and paste some of it in the "Guide" .

http://usrecordingmedia-store.stores.yahoo.net/
steve koto
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Offline 79_Limited

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Re: New member here currently have Technics RS-1500
« Reply #2 on: May 25, 2009, 07:20:03 PM »
Hey Steve,

Thanks so much for the help.  I have seen the service manuals on E-bay from time to time so I will pick one up.  Also thanks for the tip on purchasing tape.  I have had pretty good luck in the past from purchasing tape from TapeTape out in California.

I hear you on how they are like maintaining an old car.  I used to have a Tascam TRS-8 8 track 1/2" and also a Tascam 16 track 1" machine.  They were not too bad to maintain and were very reliable.  The Technics 1600 is my first 2 track.

Greg
Technics RS-1500