I felt like drowning my sorrows of being outbid on what would have been my first R2R by hooking up my vintage Technics 630T cassette deck and play some ole pre-recorded cassettes. Popped in Toto IV and a familiar thing happened (which I had forgotten about during the 6month period of not using the deck). On hitting the PLAY button, it plays the tape with full freq. range for about 3 seconds and then all the treble seems to dissappear and your left with a sound thats like the cassette is extremely worn, but its not because when you press STOP then PLAY again it sounds fine for the first 3 seconds and then the same thing happens. It does this with some pre-recorded tapes but not all, and it does it with some home-recorded tapes but not all, so this would indicate that the player can't handle certain types of tape? Is this whats wrong or do you think there's another problem, e.g. magnitized heads?

I can bet dollars (or pounds, haha) to doughnuts that the pinch roller is shot. What's happening is a very common problem when tape decks get old. What's happening is the pinch roller is worn out and therefore its surface is uneven. This results in the tape "Skating" back and forth across the pinch roller. Depending on how worn out it is, you may be able to get away with fast forwarding a few minutes into the tape and being able to listen to it until you get a new roller. Tell me, when you take the tape out, is there a crease that goes about halfway across at about a 20 degree angle?

No there's no crease, - it doesn't seem to be damaging the tape in anyway. The fact that it only does it on some tapes would suggest that the pinch roller wasn't to blame, as if it was then it would surely do it on all tapes, no? I've made some further progress: the pre-recorded tapes which are affected all carry the Dolby sign on them, so perhaps it's because my deck came out before dolby was put on cassettes and so it is unable to handle cassettes recorded with dolby?

No there's no crease, - it doesn't seem to be damaging the tape in anyway. The fact that it only does it on some tapes would suggest that the pinch roller wasn't to blame, as if it was then it would surely do it on all tapes, no? I've made some further progress: the pre-recorded tapes which are affected all carry the Dolby sign on them, so perhaps it's because my deck came out before dolby was put on cassettes and so it is unable to handle cassettes recorded with dolby?

The deck was out after Dolby tapes. The reason I know this is because I bought that deck brand new and I bought Yes' Relayer on tape the same day and it had dolby. The deck gave out several years ago and I recently got another one from Ebay. Always loved the look of it.

Always loved the look of it.

Me too :) . Any idea what's wrong with it? It likes home-made tapes better than pre-recorded ones. The home-made tapes sound great on it, in fact I'd go as far as to say that some of them sound better than my CDs :yes: (I had a wonderful knack of mastering tapes really well as a kid, allowed the levels to peak just slightly above 0db to ensure I got maximum S/N ratio but no hint of distortion :D ). I had it fixed once before when it started to play at quadruple speed and that set me back $60 :yikes:, so I'll be damned if I need to take it back down to the tech and empty my wallet again :no:

Give the pinch roller a good cleaning and report back. It's likely that it's dirty so its surface is not even, allowing the tape to deviate, but enough so that it creases. And no, it will not do it to all tapes because of many variables, but mainly not all tapes are the same thickness. (They may look like it, paper-thin, but in reality different tapes are different thicknesses).

Some people say not to use rubbing alcohol on the pinch roller, but in this case, you can, because the pinch roller likely hasnt been exposed to it much in the past, but special rubber cleaner is obviously better. Oh yeah, make sure to clean the capstan roller too (you can DEFINITELY use alcohol on that). It's likely the capstan has a lot of crap on it too. :thmbsp:

K-L, I had no idea you were so close in age to me. It's up to us to continue the hobby through our generation!! We're few among few who appreciate audio that's older than us, rather than that shit that's sold for maximum profits and minimum quality...

We're few among few who appreciate audio that's older than us, rather than that shit that's sold for maximum profits and minimum quality...

My sentiments exactly :). I rarely find myself listening to any post-1990s music due to its poor musicianship and dreadful engineering :no:. The 60s/70s/80s do me fine :yes:.

I'll give that a go on the deck and see if it works. The deck does actually have one more problem which I've never got round to fixing (probably 'cos I don't do much cassette recording now). When you record, it records at the correct speed for about 30secs and then the tape slows down, eventually to a virtual halt. When you play it back it plays the cassette at the correct speed, but obviously the recording sounds jumbled up due to it slowing to a standstill during the recording process. Does this indicate I have a problem with the record head, or do you think it's down to the pinch rollers?

PS - It's nice to have another young(ish) person here on AK who really appreciates good music and quality gear. You seem to have such a vast knowledge at such a young age :yes:, one which will no doubt continue to increase with AK :thmbsp:

HI Guys, I'm 68 and appreciate you comments and taste. If you get a chance, latch onto a Technics RS 631.....same classic looks with great dolby.

Chuch

Thanks for the message Chuch. That 631 does look nice doesn't it :)
Do you know much about my deck? The thing that drew me towards it was the classic looks and the fact that the tape loaded back the way at an angle inside the machine and is illuminated by a nice light while playing. My local tech says its a nightmare to service though due to being surrounded in a plastic enclosure inside. I've never tried, but on the 630T, after removing the outer casing it is possible to remove the black plastic encasing inside in order to get better access to the heads?

Most likely is. But yeah, he's not kidding. It's a real bitch to get to that tape transport. Be VERY careful when you take it apart...