teac tascam 32-2b disassembly

[Wonks]

And it’s a 32-2 manual, not a 32-2b.

We can only go on the information given...

Well, he did write 32-2b in the title and text, so I'm not sure what extra information could be given!

[Hugh Robjohns]

He did...

I now realise that he was actually referring to MarkOne's links which were both for the older 32-2 model rather than the 32-2b... So I have removed those links to avoid further confusion.

If the OP PM's me with an email address I can send him the 32-2b service manual pdf from Hifi Engine. (It appears their new account registration form is broken at present.)

[heavenorlasvegas]

Thanks, although the manual isn’t as clear and detailed as I would like it to be. And it’s a 32-2 manual, not a 32-2b.

Does anyone here have an account at hi-fi engine? I need the manual for the 32-2b.

Thanks again.

Have you gone inside yet? Even though these manuals might not seem to be for the 32-2b does it all look the same, and correspond with what’s in these manuals? Some machines will share common components and construction.
You say you like the sound of the unit, what are the issues exactly, you’re having with it at the moment.
I had one of these for a few years, and it needed repair a a couple of times, but it never worked consistently, and was very unreliable, sounded OK though.

Hi arpangel, The azimuth screw is stripped on the record head. Also The pinch rollers need a little boost to get up to the capstons when recording. They don’t go up on their own.

And also I just want to make it sound as good as possible, so I would like to tweak the PCB forward settings so I can have it sound to my liking.

and also I just wanna get familiar with the unit and what’s inside for preventative maintenance kind of things like belts and what not.

[James Perrett]

The pinch rollers need a little boost to get up to the capstons when recording. They don’t go up on their own.

That's a standard problem with Teac/Tascam machines. You need the right tools for the job if you want to free it. This includes a screwdriver with a JIS tip - standard Phillips or Pozidrive tips simply don't match the screw heads well enough and will slip and damage the screws.

And also I just want to make it sound as good as possible, so I would like to tweak the PCB forward settings so I can have it sound to my liking.

You don't set these things up to your liking - you set it up to give the correct performance with your choice of tape.

[Drew Stephenson]

You don't set these things up to your liking - you set it up to give the correct performance with your choice of tape.

To be fair, if it's just being used as an effect (rather than an accurate record) then you can tweak to taste. Depends on the objective.

[Arpangel]

One of the annoying things about mine was that tape tension kept going, to the point where it wouldn’t provide enough tension to keep the motors running, and it would just trip out about three quarters of the way through a tape on playback or record, never, ever got to the bottom of that.

[heavenorlasvegas]

The pinch rollers need a little boost to get up to the capstons when recording. They don’t go up on their own.

That's a standard problem with Teac/Tascam machines. You need the right tools for the job if you want to free it. This includes a screwdriver with a JIS tip - standard Phillips or Pozidrive tips simply don't match the screw heads well enough and will slip and damage the screws.

And also I just want to make it sound as good as possible, so I would like to tweak the PCB forward settings so I can have it sound to my liking.

You don't set these things up to your liking - you set it up to give the correct performance with your choice of tape.

seriously james?! Ok, I will set the unit up to my displeasure until i absolutely despise the machine in it's entirety. How's that?

[Arpangel]

The pinch rollers need a little boost to get up to the capstons when recording. They don’t go up on their own.

That's a standard problem with Teac/Tascam machines. You need the right tools for the job if you want to free it. This includes a screwdriver with a JIS tip - standard Phillips or Pozidrive tips simply don't match the screw heads well enough and will slip and damage the screws.

And also I just want to make it sound as good as possible, so I would like to tweak the PCB forward settings so I can have it sound to my liking.

You don't set these things up to your liking - you set it up to give the correct performance with your choice of tape.

seriously james?! Ok, I will set the unit up to my displeasure until i absolutely despise the machine in it's entirety. How's that?

I think James is correct, from a technical point of view, but I’m thinking this chap maybe thinks differently too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOTsmUQoyio

Love the comment about it sounding like a PR99.

[Hugh Robjohns]

James, and probably most of us who used tape recorders professionally in our careers, see them as audio recorders expected to provide accurate fidelity — or as accurate as that technology allowed. Hence taking care over the mechanical and electrical alignments to ensure minimum wow and flutter and scrape modulations, accurate head alignments for interoperability, and for best signal/noise ratio, frequency response, distortion and so forth.

Achieving all that requires expensive, accurate calibration tapes and lots of specific test gear as well as some practical experience.

However, increasingly, some people look on tape machines as an effect. Fidelity is not required. These are not used as sound recorders in the historic sense, they are deliberately abused as sound effect devices.

So if the OP wants to misalign the record electronics to increase saturation distortion and reduce HF response to make it sound warm and phatt, that's up to them, surely?

Some old school engineers don't like that... but really, what else are you going to do with a 30 or more year old technology which is inferior in every way to modern digital sound recorders, and appallingly expensive to run and maintain? Better they be abused and enjoyed as an effect than thrown in a skip...

[Tomás Mulcahy]

...or (to the OP) just thank the expert for his insider tip about Tascam pinch rollers so you don't appear rude, thereby leaving the door open for more such tips...