[ARSCLIST] Use care with new-to-you tape machines

["Richard L. Hess" <arclists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I am hearing more and more stories about (and fixing some of the 
tapes from) tape machines chewing original master tapes.

I've had a rash of micro-cassettes recently. Prior to that there were 
some DA-88 tapes and some standard cassette tapes.

Often, it seems people will acquire a new machine and then not use an 
old tape to test it first. This is a great risk with machines from 
eBay, but, as we heard from Brandon at Stanford, it can happen right 
out of the box. Now Brandon's could have been a tape defect and the 
machine could have played a test tape fine, we don't know, but 
PLEASE, EVERYONE: when you get a new machine, try out a scratch tape 
or two first before using it with a good tape. I do that. Everyone 
should. I don't want that kind of work.

Funny story (sort of). The guy who had the DA-88 eat a tape was a 
previous client. Since he was a good previous client, I bought an 
eBay DA-38 to transfer his tape after I repaired it. The eBay machine 
was supposedly only used 75 hours. I got it, put an old tape in it. 
Chewed. I found the local Tascam-recommended repair shop and they 
fixed it up fine for me.

Cheers,

Richard

Richard L. Hess                   email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Aurora, Ontario, Canada       (905) 713 6733     1-877-TAPE-FIX
Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.