Tascam 488 Mark 1 | Tear Down Upper section | (Mixer faders switches knobs door transport controls)

[@noahraimy2373]

Hey thank you so much for your videos such a wealth of knowledge!!! I bought a cheap 488 that wouldn’t play but would rw and ff and changed the belt with help from your other video. Everything seemed to work great but I noticed all the transport buttons seemed to gradually require more and more forceful pushes to work. Pushing on the play button a little too hard, I snapped one on of the thingies attaching the play button to the rest of the buttons. Like the plastic part with all the connected plastic buttons. Opened it up using this video to confirm this. Still works button just sits weird. After that, now all functions (ff, rw, play, etc) only work intermittently. No buttons will respond, then after one is pushed a certain way it suddenly will work as expected and then after that all buttons will work for a bit. Play also sometimes randomly stops after going for seemingly random amounts of time. Could stop after half a second or go for 10 seconds. Where should I start with trying to sort this out? I’m not sure if it’s an issue with the switches, the switch covers, or something with the motors. Thanks so much for your videos!

[@noahraimy2373]

The buttons/transport issues seem to be triggered by recording a track. I noticed after booting up the machine again everything worked until I recorded an overdub.

[@Tetrakan]

Thanks. If you look at my 244 or plastic repair playlists, I have a video about repairing the cosmetic plastic button that sits on top of the electrical switch. I think the fact that the issue reappeared after recording is a coincidence. Often, the tactile switches need to be cleaned or replaced. Again, check the 244 playlist for a video on that. Also, the leaf switch at the top of the cassette player which detects the presence of the plastic tab on the cassette shell and thus enables recording could be bent or dirty and thus making intermittent contact. The tape counter should be ascending when the tape plays - is it? If you haven't already done so, cleaning or, if necessary, replacing rubber parts and lubricating the mechanism can do wonders resolving arbitrary intermittent issues.

[@noahraimy2373]

@@Tetrakan Thanks for replying so quickly! The issue seems to be pretty consistent in that every time I boot the machine up after letting it sit for a bit, it runs fine but craps out after a couple plays and rewinds. Tape counter is working as expected. The functions do sometimes abruptly stop, but maybe that's just a bad contact? I will check out the 244 playlist for that and try out your suggestions.

[@johansjolin6495]

First off, apologies for asking questions not necessarily related to the videos and hand, I promise I'll stop soon ;) I kept looking into my 244 mixer channel, and it turns out the fader was a dud, measuring the resistance on the two connectors it was always at 230k ohm regardless of position. Measuring one of the working ones, its supposed to be around 9-10k at the bottom by the looks of it? Either way, took the fader off, took it apart, cleaned it and the same result. After too much fiddling it's not even conductive at all anymore, might have had too much heat on the soldering iron trying to remove it. No loss, pretty sure it was dead anyway. It's very strange though, the input strip seems to have a break inside or something, as it's not even leading power through itself. Ie, measuring the start and end of the non black strip, with the beepy short mode on multimeter doesnt beep. However, moving both probes further down it starts beeping. So there's some sort of breakage within I think, hairline crack or something. Probably what caused the high resistance to begin with, and my fiddling ended it. The short question is, do you sell 244 faders, or entire mixer strips anywhere? :P

[@Tetrakan]

Yeah I have a ton of parts for the 244, can you hit me up on messenger via my facebook page?

[@johansjolin6495]

@@Tetrakan will do! Same name as here I guess?

[@wheatonna]

So grateful for your videos! My 488 has channels 6 and 7 that won't play through MIX but they work fine through CUE. All other channels are okay. Dirty pots? Failed capacitors? Something else?

[@KPsTboy]

Is it possible to buy new replacements for the channel faders of the 488 mk1?

[@Tetrakan]

Not that I know of. I learned by buying several beat up portastudios of the same model, flip one to recoup my costs, keep one for my own use, hold the worst unit back as a spares donor, maybe you could do something similar? There's a guy Tascam ninja ( Google him, his site should be the first result) who pieces them out but his prices are high. Occasionally you'll see folks selling spares on eBay. Good luck.

[@KPsTboy]

Tetrakan Supermonobloc Ta. I indeed know Tascam Ninja, I’ll do some further searching first though. Would I come across something I’ll report back. I’m glad that the 2 masterfaders are in tiptop condition, these really look to be a pain to get your hands on.

[@christopherdonnelly6154]

Hi there recently purchased a 488 and when I press play it plays for 2 seconds then stops wondering if you might know what the problem could be?

[@Tetrakan]

Can you feel the capstan (small metal pin) turn with no cassette in the cavity? If not, the belt needs to be replaced. If it does turn, debris obscuring the transistor which relays reel rotation to the counter can cause this.

[@nathanaelchau7630]

hey how's it going! I recently acquired a tascam 644 and was wondering if you would be able to build a power supply for me. Looking online they don't seem too difficult to build but i've never made one and figured i'd ask if you could. thanks!

[@Tetrakan]

maybe, kind of depends on your location though because I'm in Scotland, UK. If you're in UK or EU hit me up via facebook message and we can talk about it

[@richardsmith4992]

Hi - have a quick question about a Tascam 244! It was all working OK, and I'd used it quite a few times, until today when I powered it up and there is a repeating clicking on the audio output, like a click about 2-3 a second. It seems to pause for about half a second every 19 seconds (yes I timed it!) and then repeat. I've removed the tape transport and plugs / DBX board / unplugged each mixer bank...still there. Is there anything you can think of that might be causing this. Last time I used the 244 was about 3 weeks ago and was fine then. Bit odd. thanks in advance.

[@Tetrakan]

I don't suppose you or someone in your household or building started using one of those powerline extenders to distribute internet via the earth system in your house? I ask because in my experience portastudios are really susceptible to that and other pollution in your mains signal . Its worth getting a power strip with RF EMF filtering in it anyway, probably cheaper and easier than the sort of time consuming recap that would be my next suggestion.

[@richardsmith4992]

@@Tetrakan Hi Thanks for the reply. Just started to mess with the 244 on my bench/dining room table...powered up - and no clicking. Took the unit back upstairs to check again from the socket I used on Saturday - hello clicking! Put on my deerstalker and wandered next door where my GF now works from home, with our printer plugged into a powerline plug, which was downstairs plugged into the router a few weeks ago. FFS - the fallout from this lockdown has got really serious!!! I think that's it solved, thanks for your help, love the channel and look forward to your multitrack tutorials.