Fostex X15 | tear down part 1

[@oceanwatchesclaudejolly1742]

I have the same model I purchase in 1984 I repaired it today I change one belt and add some silicone grease now it work perfectly

[@Tetrakan]

Great, happy recording!

[@ommadammo]

I have a well kept one, but wore the head(s) out. Is it possible to get new or nearly-new head(s) that don't have the massive keystone wear mine has? It got worn out because it was so damn good. TDK SA-90's. Best balance between quality and price when you get through loads of them. Never had any wow&flutter or other issues with the X-15. Just the head wearing out :-)

[@100chuckjones]

@ 3:11. They are carrying straps. It was is battery powered but you need the battery compartment (which took 6 D cell battery's).

[@100chuckjones]

ahh never mind someone already mentioned it :-)

[@Tetrakan]

Thanks anyway.

[@ommadammo]

Oh yes, serious battery pack. Only ever used that once, to capture 20mins of sound at a seashore at night. Think about it peeps, even today 6xD cells is a serious bunch of batteries.

[@markfortner7369]

I have 1 FoxtexX15 and the tape cover was broke. I got a use one that would not work in play or record. Do you repair so I have 1 tape of 2 musicians that have passed but I would love to get at least one working to make digital to share with friends. Can you let me know? Thank you!

[@american_psychobiologist]

Any chance you have the belt sizes for this unit?

[@Tetrakan]

See this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/nKO4gICFgc2jfNk

[@julef4234]

great video.. at the moment i have two issues with my X15 .. i only can record and play chan/track 2 and 4 ..1 and 3 is not working ..do you have maybe a tipp or trick to fix it ?? the second is that sometimes when i use it normally .. play function don´t go off ..so i need to roll the big Belt Whell that it wnts out , is there a specific reason for that ?? cheers

[@Tetrakan]

Sorry for the late reply, just seen this...for the record issue I'd feed a function generator or synth tone into the x15 in record pause mode and use an audio probe or oscilloscope to see which components in the audio path are receiving the signal, check this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/j3a4hKKppZh8o7s For the play head getting stuck, check that you don't have gluey grease on the gears, refer to this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/jXS5iaePo5ibhbs

[@19Charlie65]

I'm on the East coast of Scotland, I'm having probs with my X15 (owned since the mid 80s), any chance of having a look?

[@Tetrakan]

Not this year unfortunately. If you're still stuck in 2023 message me via Facebook and I'll see how things stand...meantime I'm happy to advise you if you're willing to try to DIY?

[@19Charlie65]

@@Tetrakan Thanks for your reply, appreciate it. I've got a heap of old tapes with song ideas from yesteryear that I want to delve into so I'll maybe have to try the DIY route.

[@Tetrakan]

It's a fiddly build that one, but hopefully if it worked before and a little ill after storage, a clean, lubricate and new rubber belts will do the trick, good luck.

[@aaronpoor1877]

You wouldn't happen to be parting this out? I have this model but the plastic piece that the reader head mounts to has cracked right were the tiny black spring arm is held. This results in the whole play head part to not fully go up when pressing play. Any suggestions?

[@aaronpoor1877]

Sorry the plastic piece the write head mounts to. Not reader.

[@Tetrakan]

@@aaronpoor1877 you can fix that by bending the black spring inside. I refer to this in a video, I'll post a link below, but I learned the technique from 3rd island, I'll also paste a link to his video below.

[@Tetrakan]

Here's my video about the issue kzbin.info/www/bejne/rqrUYp6Ig91kl68

[@Tetrakan]

And here's 3rd islands video showing the reshaping if the spring in detail. It's demonstrated on a tascam porta one but the transport is the same. fyi in these units record and read are performed by the same head (rightmost one) switching between the record and playback amps is handled by either relays or transistors, thanks for watching kzbin.info/www/bejne/oHm4lpljfMaJj9E

[@aaronpoor1877]

Awesome thanks so much. I'm hoping that the piece will still hold the spring in place even with the crack.

[@johnfozard6922]

Great thanks ,could you have look at my x15 do you have a web site ?

[@Tetrakan]

Thanks for the thought but I’m not taking on repair work beyond what I need to keep the KZbin channel going!

[@jonathanzohany1454]

i would love to find a fostex 460. im interested in trying one fostex cassette tracker. is the 280 good? i see a mint one for sale. recently scored a mint yamaha mt8x. gambling that its age and mint condition makes it outperform my older troubled tascam 238!

[@Tetrakan]

Took apart a 280 recently, transport seems like it'd be easy to keep going, no over engineered mechanisms etc. Big footprint for the feature set. Bit of a rat's nest of ribbon cables and a plastic chassis. So unless there was a big price difference with my DIY/ got no space hat on I'd err on an equivalent Tascam.

[@Wizkidmelburn]

You don't happen to have a pull down bid for a fostex X 18 by any chance? Ta.

[@Tetrakan]

Not yet, sorry. I do intend to cover it one day.

[@ineedstuff8286]

you ever read the cult of the black cube?

[@Tetrakan]

I know what it is, but no. I guess you’re asking because of the hand tattoos….My interest in the occult is mainly for the aesthetics tbh, my reading about it is more from the Robert Anton Wilson, Peter Carroll, Jodorowsky end of things.

[@goldenlady8333]

Hi, where are you based? Is there any chance of you fixing my X-15 for me? The record and play buttons don't go down. Im based in Bedfordshire. Thank you.

[@Tetrakan]

Hi, yes, if you go to my Facebook page there's a pinned post with my rates, there's an email link on the Facebook page or you can contact me via fb messenger or Instagram.

[@goldenlady8333]

@Tetrakan Awesome, thanks. I'll proceed accordingly. The only snag is that I'm not on Facebook.

[@JeffJefferyUK]

Nice video, but how much of that (scary looking) disassembly is required just to replace the drive belts? I got a rough quote from someone to service my X-15 and replace the belts, but the lower part of that quote is more than it would cost to buy an X-15 off e-bay (granted that comes with the risk of the purchased unit also not working). I only need to get it working for long enough to transfer my old cassettes to digital, after that it'll probably never get powered on again, so the thought of spending £200 just to use it for a week or so isn't very attractive. So now I'm at the stage of considering the DIY route...

[@Tetrakan]

Well you don't have to remove the mixer or rec/pb boards, but pretty much everything else you see will need to be done. And it's quite a hard transport to get working - often there are lubricantion issues which require a rebuild. So £200 represents 8 to 10 hours of your techs labour, that's not a bad price IMO. While the DIY route is do-able, honestly this is not an ideal beginners project, in fact it's one of the hardest units I've worked on; it might be better for the sake of a tape transfer to sell your x15 for spares/repairs and buy another low speed Dolby multitracker which works? In any case thanks for watching and good luck!

[@JeffJefferyUK]

@@Tetrakan Thank you very much for the reply. When I dug out the unit it worked perfectly for a good while, enabling me to transfer quite a few of my cassettes before one of the drive belts broke, that's why I think it's only the belts that need renewing.

[@Tetrakan]

Loose belts could account for the way your unit has recently stopped working, but so could seized grease. Your x15 is in the region of 35 years old, so it would be in your best interests to renew the grease and replace the belts; they will undoubtedly become issues in the near future if they haven't already. Good luck.