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

Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Kenkirk

Pages: [1] 2 3 4
1
Nicely done Ken. Thanks for share that.

Is the Bob you mentioned the one from Vintage Electronics?

no, I have forgotten his real name, but he hung out and answered a ton of Teac questions on the  reeltoreel yahoo group which I have followed for years.

Ken

2
Well let me just post all of the stuff I saved from Wbob over the years.  He was a very helpful man and loved Teacs. He also helped me chase down a bad resistor in the power supply for my Teac X2000r. He no longer works on the decks due to health problems.

Ken

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

To "fix" the pinch roller's failure to close it is necessary
to lubricate the pinch roller arm shaft. You will need the
following tools:

Set of metric hex wrenches,
#1 Phillips screwdriver,
tweezers,
oil in a small oil dispenser like a hypodermic needle. The oil I
recommend is Rislone, a quart (enough for 10,000 decks) is around
$4.00 at the auto store.

Lay the deck on its back with the bottom in your gut.

Remove the head cover
Remove the two pinch rollers, be careful to save the
washers. There is a thick and a thin washer for each pinch.
Remove the plastic piece around the head block it is held by
two Phillips screws.
Remove the cross beam between the pinch roller frames. Two
Phillips screws.
One at a time, remove the pinch roller frame by pulling
straight up.
It may be hard to remove, but keep working it back and
forth.
Once removed, clean the shafts and oil them with the
rislone.
When reinserting the part be sure the washer is under the
lifter arm and it all lines up on the lifter shaft.
It should seat clear down on the shaft. test that the
lifters move when you move the pinch roller arm.
Do the other one the same way.
Put it back together
The pinch roller washers, the thin one goes under the pinch
and the thick one on last.
The pinch should now be very fast.
If it is still slow, some grease may have hardened somewhere
in the lifter assembly. search for it and oil it with
rislone. You don't need grease.


__________________________________________________ ________


X-3R (Tascam 22-2, 22-4 and Radio shack 3000) tutorial on
belts...I am doing this from memory and its been a month or so
since I did an X-3 (or two).

Remove the rear plastic. Remove the surround sheet metal, remove
the knobs. Remove the head cover (pull carefully and evenly).
Remove the pinch roller (save the two washers). . Remove the
tension wheels (save the two washers on each side). Remove the
post the head cover was on, the one with the slot. Remove the
phillips screw on the brown plastic head surround. remove the hex
screws on the front panel. remove the front panel. Start cleaning
the mess of the old belt.

There are two ways of getting the new belt in there. I don't know
which is easier. One is to remove the thrust plate from the rear
of the capstan flywheel and work the belt into the front around
the gap between the flywheel and the sheet metal Once the belt is
all in the front it can be strung between the flywheel and the motor.

The other is to remove the capstan plate screws in the front and
move the capstan flywheel up far enough to get the belt under it
and around the flywheel. Then string it on the motor. I have done
both ways and neither is "fun".

You can put the wheels back on without the front panel and run
tape to see how it is all working.

When you put the panel back be sure that it is clear down and not
rocking at all before you tighten anything. There are a lot of
things poking thru holes and stuff that should be out of the way
(like the head wires) and the panel should rest on a even ground.

On the capstan and the tension rollers, there are two washers
each, one going under the wheel and one over. The lower one should
be 0.25mm and the upper 0.5mm thick. They are fibre and somewhat
hard to find if they are lost. A drop of Rislone on each shaft
will make for years of oilyness.

I recommend using Xylene for cleaning the belt mess (and the
heads) but most any solvent seems to work. Just don't get it on
any plastic or rubber parts.

__________________________________________________ __________


Yes. There is a rather simple adjustment to set the servo. I will
outline it here as some other may wonder how to set their 1000/2000s
servo systems.

First let me preface that this is a crude method and the proper method
requires the use of a Tentelometer, a $500 tool used by service shops.
These things show up on ebay from time to time and since no one ever
heard of them, they go fairly cheap (under $100).

Anyway, here is the dirty drill:

Remove the wood case
Remove the plastic case
set the deck on its bottom and thread in a tape you can afford to lose
(in case the servo goes nutso)
Locate the circuit board on the back that is on the left as viewed from
the front. (confused?..it's the big one)
Find five potentiometers (little screwdriver adjustable resistors)
visible from the left side of the deck looking in at the inside of this
circuit board. There should be two very near the top corner, two
side-by-side down about 3 inches and one by itself just below the middle.
The two at the top control the reel servo for play, one control for each
direction, the two side-by-side are for FF and RW and the one by itself
is for sped, but don't mess with that unless you have a scope attached
to the nearby test point, then you set it for 0.7 msec during FF/RW. It
can be made to go very fast and can also be made to go extremely fast
and not ever stop (runaway) so don't mess with this unless you have the
scope attached.

Now the trick. Get the tape running in FF and adjust one of the
side-by-side pots. you will see one of the little tension arms move up
or down. If it doesn't tweak on the other side-by-side pot. Set the pot
so the arm is in line with the counter wheel (the wheel with the rubber
on it and the inertial wheel (the wheel on the other side). Now go to RW
and do the same thing with the other side-by-side pot and the other
tension arm. When things are OK, all four silver wheels should be in a
line.

You can do the same thing in Play mode, using the upper two pots, one
for each direction, again, when you are done all four rolley wheels
should be in a line.

If the bad arm don't respond properly, then the next thing to look at is
the cam in the optical sensor for that tension arm. It may need a tweak,
but now you are getting into dangerous waters.


----------------------------------------------
The folowing procedure usually fixes the pokey pinch problem:

To "fix" the pinch roller's failure to close it is necessary to
lubricate the pinch roller arm shaft. You will need the following
tools: Set of metric hex wrenches, #1 Phillips screwdriver, tweezers,
oil in a small oil dispenser like a hypodermic needle. The oil I
recommend is Rislone, a quart (enough for 10,000 decks) is around
$4.00 at the auto store.

Remove the head cover. Remove the two pinch rollers, be careful to
save the washers. There is a thick and a thin washer for each pinch.
Remove the plastic piece around the head block it is held by two
Phillips screws. Remove the cross beam between the pinch roller
frames. Two phillips screws. One at a time, remove the pinch roller
frame by pulling straight up.
It may be hard to remove, but keep working it back and forth. Once
removed, clean the shafts and oil them with the rislone.
When reinserting the part be sure the washer is under the arm and it
all lines up on the lifter shaft.It should seat clear down on the
shaft. test that the lifters move when you move the pinch roller arm.
Do the other one the same way. Put it back together. The pinch roller
washers, the thin one goes under the pinch and the thick one on last.
The pinch should now be very fast. If it is still slow, some grease
may have hardened somewhere in the lifter assembly. search for it and
oil it with Rislone. You don't need grease.

__________________________________________________ _____________

"Here is a blow by blow on changing a belt on a X-
7,10,300,700,1000,2000...The belt is a PRB FR-16.9. It runs between the
two capstan flywheels and the motor.

Tools needed are a #2 Phillips screwdriver and a pair of long crochet
hooks or the equivalent.

Find a place that is big (like a table) and soft (like several layers of
blanket) and available for a while. Find a bowl or dish or something to
collect screws and small parts.

1) Lay the deck on its face with the bottom in your gut.

2) Remove the box (if it has one) and remove the plastic cabinet.

3) Remove the two screws holding the rear circuit boards. These screws
go into each of the reel motors. Move the circuit board upwards away
from your gut about 4 inches. You may have to cut some tywraps to do this.

4) Locate the two flywheels and the metal thrust plate going between
them with the capstan motor mounted. It is held on with 6 screws, one in
each corner, one in the middle of the bottom (nearest you gut) and a
smaller screw on the side going to a little 1/4 inch bracket. Remove all
these screws.

5) lift the motor, plate and all and move it out of the way from the
flywheels. Work it around up and under all those wires. If you need more
room, you can unplug the motor servo board and take the plate/motor
subassembly and drop it on the floor. Be careful of the the two little
grease cups getting gookie on the wife's favorite blanket.

6) remove the old belt, clean up the flywheels and capstan motor pulley
using what ever organic cleaner you have (Xylene, Ronsonal, Alcohol,
etc.) just don't get any other than on the dirty metal parts.

7) Put the new belt around the flywheels. Work it up to the top of the
flywheel so it is just even with the upper edge of the wheel.

8) lower the motor plate into the deck and with the aid of mirrors and
magic, hook the lower passing of the belt from the bottom (gut end) on
the motor pulley. This part is not easy as the whole operation is in the
blind and the belt will be tight. Get the plate to match the mounting
screw holes and the switch plate tabs (away from your gut are the two
switches for the
timer on a bracket with tabs that fits in a slot on the motor plate).
get the plate to engage the posts for the screws that have little
holding flanges and using your third hand insert the plate
screw for the bottom (gut) middle plate mounting screw. Use the hooks
fingers and whatever
to work the belt to the center of the motor pulley and be sure that all
is rotating freely.

9) put the rest of the screws on the plate, put the circuit board back
and put the deck back on it's bottom.

10) plug it in, turn it on and raise the right tension arm. The capstan
should be turning. Check the belt position by looking in from the side
and be sure it is running smoothly.

11) reverse the deck and check that the belt moves on the capstan
flywheels to either the inside or outside, opposite what it was.

12) put it all back together.

3
I agree about the belt, but I have always been able to get the Teac belt. But the PBR would be better than nothing. 

Here is a post from Wbob on the pinch roller trouble.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The folowing procedure usually fixes the pokey pinch problem:

To "fix" the pinch roller's failure to close it is necessary to
lubricate the pinch roller arm shaft. You will need the following
tools: Set of metric hex wrenches, #1 Phillips screwdriver, tweezers,
oil in a small oil dispenser like a hypodermic needle. The oil I
recommend is Rislone, a quart (enough for 10,000 decks) is around
$4.00 at the auto store.

Remove the head cover. Remove the two pinch rollers, be careful to
save the washers. There is a thick and a thin washer for each pinch.
Remove the plastic piece around the head block it is held by two
Phillips screws. Remove the cross beam between the pinch roller
frames. Two phillips screws. One at a time, remove the pinch roller
frame by pulling straight up.
It may be hard to remove, but keep working it back and forth. Once
removed, clean the shafts and oil them with the rislone.
When reinserting the part be sure the washer is under the arm and it
all lines up on the lifter shaft.It should seat clear down on the
shaft. test that the lifters move when you move the pinch roller arm.
Do the other one the same way. Put it back together. The pinch roller
washers, the thin one goes under the pinch and the thick one on last.
The pinch should now be very fast. If it is still slow, some grease
may have hardened somewhere in the lifter assembly. search for it and
oil it with Rislone. You don't need grease.

4
Here ya go... credit goes to WBob from the reel to reel group back a few years. I saved some of his best posts.

Ken


"Here is a blow by blow on changing a belt on a X-
7,10,300,700,1000,2000...The belt is a PRB FR-16.9. It runs between the
two capstan flywheels and the motor.

Tools needed are a #2 Phillips screwdriver and a pair of long crochet
hooks or the equivalent.

Find a place that is big (like a table) and soft (like several layers of
blanket) and available for a while. Find a bowl or dish or something to
collect screws and small parts.

1) Lay the deck on its face with the bottom in your gut.

2) Remove the box (if it has one) and remove the plastic cabinet.

3) Remove the two screws holding the rear circuit boards. These screws
go into each of the reel motors. Move the circuit board upwards away
from your gut about 4 inches. You may have to cut some tywraps to do this.

4) Locate the two flywheels and the metal thrust plate going between
them with the capstan motor mounted. It is held on with 6 screws, one in
each corner, one in the middle of the bottom (nearest you gut) and a
smaller screw on the side going to a little 1/4 inch bracket. Remove all
these screws.

5) lift the motor, plate and all and move it out of the way from the
flywheels. Work it around up and under all those wires. If you need more
room, you can unplug the motor servo board and take the plate/motor
subassembly and drop it on the floor. Be careful of the the two little
grease cups getting gookie on the wife's favorite blanket.

6) remove the old belt, clean up the flywheels and capstan motor pulley
using what ever organic cleaner you have (Xylene, Ronsonal, Alcohol,
etc.) just don't get any other than on the dirty metal parts.

7) Put the new belt around the flywheels. Work it up to the top of the
flywheel so it is just even with the upper edge of the wheel.

8) lower the motor plate into the deck and with the aid of mirrors and
magic, hook the lower passing of the belt from the bottom (gut end) on
the motor pulley. This part is not easy as the whole operation is in the
blind and the belt will be tight. Get the plate to match the mounting
screw holes and the switch plate tabs (away from your gut are the two
switches for the
timer on a bracket with tabs that fits in a slot on the motor plate).
get the plate to engage the posts for the screws that have little
holding flanges and using your third hand insert the plate
screw for the bottom (gut) middle plate mounting screw. Use the hooks
fingers and whatever
to work the belt to the center of the motor pulley and be sure that all
is rotating freely.

9) put the rest of the screws on the plate, put the circuit board back
and put the deck back on it's bottom.

10) plug it in, turn it on and raise the right tension arm. The capstan
should be turning. Check the belt position by looking in from the side
and be sure it is running smoothly.

11) reverse the deck and check that the belt moves on the capstan
flywheels to either the inside or outside, opposite what it was.

12) put it all back together.

5
Raw Tape / Re: Splicing Tape
« on: January 28, 2009, 02:26:16 PM »

[/quote]


In case anyone isn't clear on this, here's how we approach leadering your tapes: We give you a head leader so you can locate the beginning of program, and we put a pad of blank tape before the head leader, like Doc said above. That's so that if you overshoot the leader when winding back to the front it won't come off the machine and you won't have to rethread it. It's just a courtesy, given our assumption that you will always be storing your tapes tails out and rewinding before play. (You will, wont you? And storing them flatwound, too?)

We leader at the end so you know program is over, then we put a pad of blank after that just for a little extra protection. If something slips when you've just loaded the machine and started to fast wind back, the worst that can happen is stretching a little of the blank pad; your recorded portion is safe.

Our normal procedures would leave between a second and four seconds between the leaders and program material.
[/quote]

And I appreciate the hell out of this effort! When I received my first tape I was puzzled by this technique. Then after rewinding a few times and learning to watch for the leader, then hit stop, I realized the genius of leaving the nice pad of tape at the beginning. First class effort.... Many thanks!

Ken

6
General Discussion / Re: ANYONE MADE 15 ips 2 TRACK COPIES OF LPs?
« on: January 17, 2009, 09:07:10 AM »
Hi Steve,

I have the exact same experience as you burning red book cd's from the Masterlink. I use the 24/88.2 sample rate if I know the final is to be a cd.  I am going to record a high school percussion concert next month. I will use the Alesis in tandem with my Otari. I will burn the cd's for distribution to the family and friends from the Alesis. The Otari will record my copy... :-)  If anyone really wants to hear how bad 16/44.1 sucks the life out of music, hearing the loss from 24/88.2 to 16/44.1 tells an ugly story in our musical history. So much music lost for the future....


Ken

7
General Discussion / Re: ANYONE MADE 15 ips 2 TRACK COPIES OF LPs?
« on: January 16, 2009, 04:56:16 PM »
Yea, I trashed digital for years. But when I first hooked up my Alesis Masterlink and mixed down from my Tascam at 24/96, I was shocked. It sounded dam good. But I give credit to mastering engineer Stan Ricker who told me the Masterlink was good stuff. So I softened up a bit. And now I have 2 terabits of Apple lossless music on a server here at the house and I send it around using those Airport Expresses. I even hooked up one of them to my Wadia via toslink. Talk about the bomb! I just sit here on my Macbook and pick music and it plays everywhere! And I can even use my Iphone as a remote control to adjust the volume or change songs. Try that with vinyl or tape!! :-) And those new Blue ray disks with their DTS Master and Dolby True HD sound spectacular also.

But when I want to listen closely, and focus, it is all analog for me. Right now my old trusty Teac X2000r is playing music I recorded from SACD and lp's. I used Quantery 407 which is 3600 feet and at 7.5 ips and 4 track, auto reverse, I can sit here on my ass and type away for a few hours of uninterrupted bliss. 

Ken

8
General Discussion / Re: ANYONE MADE 15 ips 2 TRACK COPIES OF LPs?
« on: January 16, 2009, 04:29:00 PM »
Well no doubt tape has a sound. But in my limited experience, it is hard to really hear what tape does to the signal unless you monitor a live mic feed. Then it is kind of obvious with my gear anyway. And I must admit, it is a sound I like. I think over the years they perfected tape to sound very good with the mics and associated gear. Then when digital came out, with its own distortions and advantages, it has taken 20 something years to get it to sound good with the associated gear. Digital can sound very good now. But getting that sound to the masses has been a challenge. But there is just something special about pure analog, especially with tubes. My opinion. Others don't think so. But my ears tell me otherwise.

Ken

9
General Discussion / Re: ANYONE MADE 15 ips 2 TRACK COPIES OF LPs?
« on: January 16, 2009, 02:57:15 PM »
Ken, you obviously have a great system.  Since you are recording to an Otari 5050 and playing back the LPs that you recorded with the 5050, I am surprised that they sound identical.  I would think the LP would sound better played straight through your system based on your CAT preamp getting a signal straight from the LP vice playing back a SS signal from the 5050.



Well in theory it certainly should sound better. But the reality is that it is very hard to tell "is it live or is it Quantergy"  :-)   The first thing I do is adjust the levels and bias for the tape I am going to use. Then when recording from the lp, I plug my Sennheiser HD 600's into the Otari and switch between source and tape. I just don't hear hardly any difference with most lps. With 45's or direct to disk, some plumping of the bass is noted on the tape. Sounds nice really, but it is a tape artifact. But with most lp's, it just sounds so much the same that without knowing which is which, you would not be able to guess. Same with the Dragon on lp's. An even better test is to switch between the just recorded tape to the lp direct through the Cat. Not only does this eliminate a bunch of Otari electronics in the loop, but the cables too. I have not nor have my audiophile friends been able to correctly identify which is the live lp or the just recorded tape. Both the Dragon and the Otari can do this. The Dragon will fail the test with dynamic SACD's. But the Otari at 15ips can pass the test. Now I do not use my studio monitors for casual listening. I use my Sonus Faber Amati's with the REL Stentors for the last bottom octave. My Mackie Monitors might expose some differences, but it is really not something I care about since I hate to use my monitors for anything but mixing music. But like I said, in theory the lp direct should be better. In reality, the difference is slight at best. I will put it another way. If my buddy has a minty, expensive lp. I do not care to find my own copy of the lp. I make a tape on the Dragon and it more than satisfies. Now, duping a Tape Project tape, no way am I going to get a copy that sounds as good as the original. Hell I have not even heard how good those tapes are yet on my stock Otari! I know there is more music on those tapes than my Otari can resolve.

Ken

10
General Discussion / Re: ANYONE MADE 15 ips 2 TRACK COPIES OF LPs?
« on: January 16, 2009, 12:53:33 PM »
I have made lp dupes with my Otari MX 5050BIII at 15 ips on Quantergy 456. No difference can be detected. I have also made dupes from the Sony SACD player. No difference noted. I have also used the Otari to mix to two track from home studio recordings made with my Tascam TSR 8, which runs at 15 ips on 1/2 inch tape. Now this pushes the Otari with dynamics and again, it makes just about perfect copies. I personally do not think the lp format pushes the Otari to its limits like live music or mixdown from the Tascam. So I use my Nak dragon to record lps. Much cheaper tape and it also makes recordings from lp that are just about perfect copies. But the Nak dragon cannot make a perfect recording from the Tascam TSR 8. It compresses the dynamics. I used my Alesis Masterlink set at 26/96 to mix down from the Tascam until I got the Otari. I also used my Teac x2000r 4 track at 7.5 ips to mix down from the Tascam. Again, some compression of the dynamics. But better than the Nak. So the Masterlink at 24/96 was the best until I got the Otari. I need a Studer..... no I want a Studer... :-)

Ken

11
Prerecorded Tapes / Re: Collection of Tapes
« on: January 14, 2009, 08:31:16 AM »
There were 2 types of DBX if I recall correctly. DBX Pro which is what I have on my Tascam TSR 8 and my Teac X2000r does not suffer from the pumping sound. I prefer it over Dolby. The DBX consumer version was known for its pumping. I have never owned anything with the conusmer version of DBX, so I don't know how bad the pumping can be. But I hear it sucks.  I wonder which kind of DBX encoders were used on the BC tapes???

Ken

12
Tape Project Albums - general / Re: 2nd series titles
« on: January 13, 2009, 09:43:44 AM »
I just wanted to say that I think it is time to just back off of the money talk. I think it is nice the owners gave us a forum to talk about the tapes and machines and music etc... But from here on I don't see anything constructive coming from this. We all have to make our personal decisions about what we want, what we need, what we can afford. And the owners have to this also. So we just need to dig a little deeper! So what else is new?  :-)  The main thing is the Project needs to live and breathe. We want more tapes!

Ken

13
Tape Project Albums - general / Re: 2nd series titles
« on: January 12, 2009, 08:41:12 PM »
Personally I would accept a pancake and a label!  :-)

But I must admit that fine art work and box is fun to show off to friends!
Ken

14
Tape Project Albums - general / Re: 2nd series titles
« on: January 12, 2009, 05:47:49 PM »

We appreciate that you have played your tapes, Ken (which as I recall you purchased from an original Charter subscriber via ebay rather than from us) for folks who later subscribed. Thank you! This is a critical part of helping the Tape Project grow, letting folks hear some exceptional recordings of exceptional performances on an exceptional format.



Oh no, I did not purchase anything from Ebay! :-(
I gave you my credit card information over the phone personally! I paid full price and think it was an excellent move on my part! I just wanted to clear that up! I am not a scavenger and don't want to be portrayed as such! And you might also consider extending the deadline to buy series II after we have all received our series I tapes. Just a thought.

And thanks Doc for all of your work!

Ken

15
Tape Project Albums - general / Re: 2nd series titles
« on: January 12, 2009, 09:20:39 AM »

[/quote]


OTOH a business does not use the democratic process to price it's goods (that's how government works, and we can see the result of that); and you never see a price on the new model until it is offered for sale. then the marketplace either supports it or it does not based on the percieved value for the price. my point was just that, as customers, it is not reasonable to expect to be involved with setting pricing or seeing furture pricing on products not yet offered.

i am not questioning anyone's right to offer an opinion on the price; only that somehow they are 'irritated' that they were not consulted first......and that is not the real world.


[/quote]

Agreed. My personal concerns ( opinions )were that the increase seemed too much too soon in a poor economy. I am afraid of attrition and the loss of the project. With the cost of a TP approaching 5 or 6 new 45 rpm vinyl reissues, it is getting harder to justify the expense. The tapes are the best. But I blow through allot of analog music. I crave new titles on a regular basis. These 10 new titles a year are a drop in the bucket. A very nice drop in the bucket, but you can only listen to the same title so many times before you get tired of it. I have not made a decision.... I seem to be on the fence and that sucks. Two of my friends have already bought Charter subs to series one after hearing TP tapes on my system. I have been very commited.

Ken

Pages: [1] 2 3 4