I've recently begun some repair work on my grandfather's Tandberg TD-20a SE. I'm not exactly sure how old it is, but I know that it must be from the early 80's...and I don't think that it has had a proper cleaning since then. The man loves his high end gear, but never seems to read the manuals. =) Anyhow...the heads seem to be in rather questionable condition. The erase head has a gouge, it appears, and it doesn't seem to record the right channel properly. All of the heads are dirtier than I've ever seen before, although most of my work has been on well maintained 2" machines. I'm pretty sure that my gramps' Tandberg is a 2 track, 15 ips capable machine. Recordings from before the right channel of the record head went out seem to play back just fine in stereo.Now the real question...do I have the heads relapped, or replaced? The only replacements that I've come across are here: http://www.oaktreeent.com/Tandberg_Stereo_Parts_Units.htm and I'm not sure how much I trust their "Perfect" labeling. Then again, I have know idea how well trusted that site is. If relapping is the way to go, I live right near Berkeley, CA...I'd rather not send the heads back east, but I will if I have to. Also, what kind of prices should I be looking at?
I have reference tone tapes, a degausser, and other, far more skilled tape machine technicians at my disposal where I go to school, so I'm not afraid of the disassembly and reinstall/alignment part. =)
Many thanks in advance.
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
Topic - Damaged Tandberg TD-20a SE heads... - Zodo 21:10:23 07/11/06 (3)
- Re: Damaged Tandberg TD-20a SE heads... - deadfeat1 07:20:40 07/16/06 (0)
- Correction... - Zodo 21:17:23 07/11/06 (1)
- Re: TD-20-SE machine issues - Marantzguy 12:35:28 07/12/06 (0)