Tascam 22-2 reel to reel deck help

hey all,

i need some help with troubleshooting my Tascam 22-2 1/4" reel to reel deck. the guy i bought it from on ebay said it was professionally reconditioned, so i half expected to plug and play. i know very little about reel decks, and haven't done a thing to it, but here's what's happening:

using the main outs of my mackie 1402 mixer into the inputs of the reel deck, and the outs of the reel directly to my event tr8 monitors i get clean signal on the vu meters of the reel deck, and clear sound out to my monitors. when i record to tape (quantegy 456 1/4" grand master tape "new in box") the left channel is almost inaudible, and the right is real muddy.

i'm hoping this is as simple as demagnetizing the head. i'm not hoping i have to get the heads relapped, or troubleshoot the hardware or mechanical parts.

the unit does look well cared for (no obvious nicks or scrathces anywhere). if anyone can help or guide me, i'd be grateful. it'd also be interesting to see if anyone else here bounces to tape!

thanks.

 

How do the HEADS look? Did this dude who sold it to you provide any test/cal tapes? Did he tell you who "professionally" refurbed it? Maybe your heads got knocked out of alignment by (God forbid) UPS...Did you clean the heads before you ran tape?
Fill us in.....

 

There are lots of things that could be wrong. Demaging the heads is probably not one of them.

What tape was the machine biased for? It sounds like the tape recorder was not aligned properly for your kind of tape and it sounds like their could be other mechanical and electronic problems as well. The 22.2 is a GREAT machine when it is works


You should probably become a member of this on line web discussion as they have a lot of people that can help you.

reeltoreel@yahoogroups.com

 

I still have and use my Tascam 22-2. Just because the tape was new, doesn't mean that it was good. Tape ages just like milk does. I'd try a different tape. I use TDK SA often and Quantegy from time to time.

 

thanks for the replies so far:

the heads look to be in good shape, i don't know what i'm looking for, but there's no obvious dirt, grime, dust, or scratches. no test tapes provided (see below for more info). i don't have any info on who refurbed it. i didn't clean the heads yet (the thing looked immaculate when it arrived, and it was practically hermetically sealed for shipping.)

i don't know the history of the machine, but the manual says it's biased for Teac YTT-8013/Ampex (Quantegy) 356,407. as i said before, i'm using Quantegy 456 tape. i found calibration tape through these folks: MRL, so i'm guessing this would be my next step. if this indeed is the problem, i'm amazed that the result on the quality of recording would be as described above (no sound on L channel/muddy at best on R). i figured the problem would be more with the tape heads, or possibly the input jacks themselves.

the quantegy tape i'm using was made in may 2005, should be fine. i have one more reel i could try, though.

on another board someone mentioned signal levels and cable types. i made sure the signal levels from the outputs my pc audio interface were set to -10, as well as the main outs of my mixer. this had no audible effect. cables are fine.

any more thoughts? thanks for all the tips so far, and the link to the message group.