Sharp GF-999 warbly-sounding tape playback?

[thekrakenisme]

Hi all,

I recently took this beast apart and replaced the belts because the tape deck sounded slow / muffled.
Putting everything back together, the tape deck still sounds muffled and strange.
I saw a post here about demagnetizing / cleaning the tape head, which I have done. No change that I can tell, but I might try again just to be sure.

I recorded some audio and I think this captures the problem pretty well. It sounds slow / muffled to me. Listen especially at :31, and you can hear a warbly pitch-shift thing happen.

Radio sounds fine. Only other known issue is that I only get audio from one side when doing line-in (though phono is fine), but I don't think that's related?

Anyone have ideas about what I could try next? Thanks!

Don't know the best way to share video. Maybe this works? https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rCPOZQ6XZr4rPRE-9S3Uhga5g4kfRftF/view?usp=sharing

 

[Hisrudeness]

If you’ve done the belts and the head cleaning then I guess you should check the idler tyre and change it then manually adjust the tape speed via the motor as you put it back together. Sounds alright just slow.

 

[hopey]

Did you adjust the alignment of the head; azimuth? Also clean the head again with a cotton tip and alcohol give it a really good scrub.

 

[thekrakenisme]

Did you adjust the alignment of the head; azimuth? Also clean the head again with a cotton tip and alcohol give it a really good scrub.

View attachment 53539

Ok, so if I were to adjust this, how would you suggest proceeding? Basically loosening or tightening the adjustable screw to center the tape on the pickups? I can definitely give this a shot. Also, will re-clean the heads.

 

[JVC Floyd]

Ok, so if I were to adjust this, how would you suggest proceeding? Basically loosening or tightening the adjustable screw to center the tape on the pickups? I can definitely give this a shot. Also, will re-clean the heads.

exactly and what I usually do is get a reference tape which means a tape I know exactly how it should sound then I adjust the heads until it sounds as close to that as I can get.

 

[JVC Floyd]

Ok, so if I were to adjust this, how would you suggest proceeding? Basically loosening or tightening the adjustable screw to center the tape on the pickups? I can definitely give this a shot. Also, will re-clean the heads.

you should do this while a tape is playing , im pretty sure the azimuth adjustment screws are just below the cassette doors.

 

[Radio raheem]

you should do this while a tape is playing , im pretty sure the azimuth adjustment screws are just below the cassette doors.

this

make sure the right hand side is tight and adjust the left hand side while playing a cassette

 

[thekrakenisme]

you should do this while a tape is playing , im pretty sure the azimuth adjustment screws are just below the cassette doors.

I'm guessing I need to take off the doors to adjust while playing? The screw is pretty low in there and I would already need a 'L' screwdriver to reach

 

[JVC Floyd]

i think i just used a long jewelry screwdriver to do it , i honestly cant remember.