Finally got around to replacing the belt on one of my Tascam 488mkII decks. I had the console taken apart and sitting on one of my work tables since February, and the belt ended up taking a month to arrive due to short stock from the supplier. Anyway, it was kind of a pain in the ass to replace the belt itself, but it's all back together and seems to be working well. I use a playback deck where I mix and I have another recording deck that's in the basement where we practice and record. I was having some tape speed issues where some stuff would be sped up on the playback machine. I looked a the belt for the recording machine and it was very loose...almost floppy. I didn't (and still don't) really understand how an intact but loose belt was still able to maintain a relatively stable (although slower) speed, but the pitch control seemed to be working fine, and that belt just didn't seem like it was holding much tension at all.Anyway, new belt on, nice snug fit, and the tapes (recorded on a machine operating at the proper speed) I tested it with played back at the exactly correct speed with the pitch control at 0.

Nate Dort wrote:greg wrote:Those EPROMs (are they EPROMs?), sockets and switches lcould be a problem. The switches look like those terrible Isostat ones plaguing a lot of English consoles from the 70's and 80's.If you can reliably get those working, theres a lot of people who would hire you to fix theirs.They're 4096 bit DRAM chips (MM5280).Now that I've gotten into it, there's no way I'm working on another one of these. There's a reason that David Kulka stopped working on them. The only shop I know of that's still fixing old 910s and 939s is Dane Beamish Electronics in Cleveland. If I get to a point where I want to throw in the towel, I'll probably just send it off to him.This guy posts about repairing Eventide/Studer/Lexicon stuff...https://facebook.com/piscineatokyo

That's great. Thanks for sharing.

Jonathan is an incredible guy who helped me (for free!) figure out some key issues with my Studer. He knows a lot about Studers and generally very knowledgable. He's really nice and generous with his time. Also, he's a fan of your work, Greg, so you two should definitely talk.

Aw,I thought I was your studer guy.

He's certainly going to take on a lot of attention handling eventide h910-949 repairs.

Ampeg SVT-II:Got this recapped / cleaned-up / reassembled, but the kids were already asleep and I couldn t play through it. Hooked up a dummy load and checked all the internal voltages and they were all within about ± 3 V.This amp is only about two years older than my SVT-II Pro, but there are significant differences. It s a much simpler design, very close to the late 70s SVTs. Easier to disassemble than the Pro.Played through it a bit yesterday after dialing in the bias. There was a bit of hum that suddenly and intermittently popped up after just sitting idle for about 10 minutes. I suspect this is what the original ebay listing was referring to. While I was plugging cables into the Preamp Out and Power Amp In jacks in an attempt to isolate which section was causing the problem, I think I actually cleared the problem: oxidized switching jacks between preamp and power amp. Hasn t hummed at all since then.I A/B'ed with the Pro and they're very similar. The tone options are broader on the Pro, what with the master volume, drive knob, and extra bands on the graphic EQ. The Pro can get a little more grindy with the additional gain stage in the preamp. The non-pro just sounds great as soon as you turn it on though. No fuss. It's the Ampeg sound you hear in your head.

Fender Band-Master Vintage Modified:Got this thing super cheap, listed as non-functioning with intermittent drop-outs. Great cosmetic condition, has newer Russian-made Mullard 6L6s in it. Hums like crazy as soon as you turn it on, nothing intermittent about it. Hum is also present on the FX send, so I figured it was something in the preamp section. Started probing voltages and didn't see anything on the +/- 16 V zener-regulated rails. Didn't see any DC at all post-rectifiers (should have seen +/- 36 V), but I could see 28 VAC right off the transformer. Reflowed all the parts in the power supply and was able to restore +/- 36 V, but wasn't getting anything on the + 16 V rail. A couple of bourbons and some lifted resistors and opamps later, I realized that the PSU ribbon cable to the preamp board was flipped around, so the +16 V rail was being shorted to ground. I never disconnected that cable, so I think the PO must have been poking around in there in an attempt to fix the intermittent drop-outs. I called it quits for the night.

Brought the guitar on the left (early ˜60s Epiphone Coronet) to Fuller Vintage Guitar in Houston to get some work done. The frets were low by modern standards and notes choked out on the treble strings high up on the neck. Was suspicious of the place first as the guy behind the counter was totally opposed to a refret, but I insisted on leaving it and asked him to have the luthier call me. He did and said he loved the guitar and would be happy to do the work, but apparently the fretboard was separating (?!) out past the 12th fret from a previous repair, so he was going to have to pull off the fretboard and glue it back on correctly. The guitar already had the finish removed (it was a weird gray-green before) from the body, but the neck is still that color. The trem is also gone in favor of a wraparound bridge. The pickup is vintage though the cover is new. So I didn t really mind getting the guitar hacked up a little to get it where I wanted. I tried it for a few songs at practice yesterday and it was great. Kept it on nearly the entire time. Totally shreds, even strung with 12 s. It held its tuning much better than it did before, even when switching to a number of alternate tunings, as I prefer to do. Some guitars are picky about them, but it performed very well. Totally killed when I played slide on it. Would be very happy to bring another guitar to them again.