Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
I just refurbished one of these for somebody who reached out to me locally. It’s from 1974 and generally is built well. Here’s my observations:
-Only contains two belts and they are for the tape counter. They needed to be replaced.
-Direct drive system, in my opinion this is a preferred mechanism for any reel to reel.
-Very easy to open up and service, whether it be from the back or removing the entire front cover
-Needed to be re-lubricated, however the existing grease was not hardened or in really bad shape, just a little gummy. There were about 30 different places I added silicon grease and the soft touch controls and solenoids are now working great and the transport is quiet
-The capstain in this unit is a very strange engineering design as it flip-flops one direction or the other, that’s the best way for me to describe it. I read up on it a little and the mechanism might need to be worked back-and-forth a little with some oil for it to work properly. The one I worked on was a little intermittent, but it worked, but the pinch roller would sometimes flipped the wrong direction, but it still would work.
-Tightened the brakes a little on the take up and supply reel.  When pressing stop from fast-forward rewind, the tape does not unspool anymore. 
-The pinch roller and all other rubber brushing inside were in good shape. I just applied rubber restore to keep them rejuvenated.
-Playback and record sound quality was very good, I did not need to make any adjustments however, it may not have been completely at factory specification when I gave it back to the person who wanted me to give it a look over
-A unit that’s 50 years old will need to have the controls cleaned with Deoxit
Note, I charged $60 for an hour or two worth of work including two thin small belts. This was not an extensive restoration, rebiasing or anything like that.
The type of refurbishment I performed will keep this going for a number of years, it’s possible that the capacitors and other things could have issues, but the mechanism is in good shape for at least another 20.
It achieved a solid functional baseline at 50 years old.
I just refurbished one of these for somebody who reached out to me locally. It’s from 1974 and generally is built well. Here’s my observations:
-Only contains two belts and they are for the tape counter. They needed to be replaced.
-Direct drive system, in my opinion this is a preferred mechanism for any reel to reel.
-Very easy to open up and service, whether it be from the back or removing the entire front cover
-Needed to be re-lubricated, however the existing grease was not hardened or in really bad shape, just a little gummy. There were about 30 different places I added silicon grease and the soft touch controls and solenoids are now working great and the transport is quiet
-The capstain in this unit is a very strange engineering design as it flip-flops one direction or the other, that’s the best way for me to describe it. I read up on it a little and the mechanism might need to be worked back-and-forth a little with some oil for it to work properly. The one I worked on was a little intermittent, but it worked, but the pinch roller would sometimes flipped the wrong direction, but it still would work.
-Tightened the brakes a little on the take up and supply reel.  When pressing stop from fast-forward rewind, the tape does not unspool anymore. 
-The pinch roller and all other rubber brushing inside were in good shape. I just applied rubber restore to keep them rejuvenated.
-Playback and record sound quality was very good, I did not need to make any adjustments however, it may not have been completely at factory specification when I gave it back to the person who wanted me to give it a look over
-A unit that’s 50 years old will need to have the controls cleaned with Deoxit
Note, I charged $60 for an hour or two worth of work including two thin small belts. This was not an extensive restoration, rebiasing or anything like that.
The type of refurbishment I performed will keep this going for a number of years, it’s possible that the capacitors and other things could have issues, but the mechanism is in good shape for at least another 20.
It achieved a solid functional baseline at 50 years old.
