Hi dere, steemians, and welcome to da workshop, eh!
I've had this tape deck since 1974, I bought it during my first year of college. I used it a lot all through the 1970s and into the 80s as a part of my home stereo setup. This is the model 2300S, a stereo tape deck with 2 speed playback and recording. This model handles the 7 inch or 5 inch reels. You can record a line source such as the tape outputs from the stereo receiver, and you can record using high impedance microphones. I had recorded a fair amount of music onto tape from my record collection to use it when I didn't feel like flipping a record, you can get about 90 minutes of music on one side of the tape, so you can just push play and go do stuff with the music in the background.
The tape deck had been sitting unused for the past 20 or so years until last fall when I dragged it out of it's hiding place to see if it worked. After basic testing, I ran a few of my old tapes through it to see if it still worked. The deck worked, but some of my old tapes had degraded somewhat, losing a fair amount of sound quality. A couple of the the cheaper tapes started losing oxides when I played them, which basically makes the tape useless.
The one thing that I noticed with the deck is that the pinch roller arm didn't want to work right, it was sticky and sluggish, needing lubrication. When you push the play or record button, the pinch roller wouldn't engage the capstan shaft, so the tape wouldn't move across the heads. If you gave the pinch roller arm a nudge into position, then it worked. I used the tape deck a couple of times in December to record a backing track from my guitar amp using an inexpensive microphone, for an open mic performance. It worked pretty well for the purpose, other than having to help the pinch roller to engage.
I've been thinking about using it again for the backing track for open mic performances, so I finally decided to take the covers off of it and do a bit of servicing and cleaning. This is the first time I've ever taken the covers off this tape deck, so it was an interesting adventure. The inside had a lot of cobwebs and dust which had to be vacuumed out first before I could do anything else.
It was "fun" to get into the pinch roller mechanism, but I managed to get some oil on the shaft that the arm pivots on and work it in. I also checked the belts and lubricated the motor bearings. That part is easy, there's little tubes for the bearing oil for the motors. After all that was done, I ran it for a test. The pinch roller arm is still a little sticky, but not nearly as bad, and it will probably get better as the oil works it's way deeper into the shaft bushing.
So, here it is, back in it's current home. It's been sitting here since last December, hooked up to the stereo receiver.
One more bonus picture. I have 6 pre-recorded reel to reel tapes that I bought back in the 1970s, it was pretty much like buying a vinyl record back then. I don't know if all of these will still play, the tape on a couple of them doesn't look that good now.
Well, that's all I have for this post, I hope you found it interesting!
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my post, eh!
As always, feel free to leave a comment or a question if you would like.
May the Steem Force be with you!
