I bought a job lot of 38 Ampex 10 inch reels that was used once or completely brand new, only the later darker blue label ones were useable; I had to scrap 30 of the 39 tapes and sell the blank reels. The newer Ampex formulations were OK, but you need to know what to look for.
Nice video thanks I would like to know more on the sticky tapes if u can do A video on that please I have just started playing my akai 4000 and many tapes are sticky
I am not in the UK anymore and don't buy recorders or tapes. Avoid Ampex and really old tapes. I recommend Agfa 368, 468, BASF, Maxell, TDK and Quantegy (new type of Ampex but not sticky). It all depends on what conditions the tape was stored as well (e.g a damp loft or garage can destroy most types of tape).
My 4000DS MKII plays fine since I replaced the pinch roller tire, but it stops about half way through fast forward and doesn’t rewind at all. Any suggestions?
The pinch roller is not engaged (or should not be) when rewinding or fast forwarding. It's probably a reel table adjustment required due to a shipping reel table clutch.
@@delatronics3257 I actually figured out the problem! After opening her up thinking it was the idler tires going hard, turned out they were fine, as was the capstan belt. The fix was by accident; the first tape guide to the left of the tape heads was so gummed up with ferric particles and dirt that it had become stationary, which I thought it was supposed to be. Turned out when I did a major clean overhaul of everything that the center bearing is supposed to rotate! Once I cleaned it up and saw that there was a little oil on the bolt, I made sure not to screw it on so tightly that it wouldn't rotate. Worked like a charm! My unit operates at 100% now with an overhaul + demag. Really happy with this thing!
If you search for the service manual on line it should tell you. I used to remove, clean and lubricate the pinch roller, the mechanism behind the front cover (need to remove switches and tape head cover etc).
hi,i've bought one of these about 8 months ago,novice at this,gave the basic service myself,but with this cold weather the motor/tracks seem to have slowed down,is it because of the cold weather (it was in my loft,which i'm slowly converting) or do you think it might be something else,i've brought it down to bedroom from the loft.
No, sorry. Just clean heads and rollers with isopropyl alcohol on the end of a clean cotton bud. Lubricate pinch roller and moving parts with Singer sewing machine oil (use lightly, as to not let it drip onto tape etc).
To clean the pinch roller and other rubber or metal parts, I use liquid windowlene sprayed on a soft clean cloth. Never use isopropyl to clean rubber, as overtime it will dry the rubber out.
