Why I no longer accept Deck related work

[Superduper]

From time to time, I do accept some very narrow specific jobs, such as rebuilding tonal control boards, and other tasks that I have a good sense of what is involved and the time investment required.

But when it comes to tape decks, after 50 years, most decks now have a potpourri of problems that are unpredictable at best. Have you ever taken apart a deck for a simple rebelting, put it back together only to realize you forgot something, so you do it all over again, only to discover it's not working right and ad naseum? Then you wonder how are you ever going to get paid for all this time you've invested? So the request always goes, it just needs a simple rebelt jobs, to which in the back of my mind, I KNOW that decks can often end up being a huge black hole and in the end, it's inevitably regretful.

If you have about an hour or so of time to pass, watch Marks video here, which I think many of you will find some of the things interesting and familiar.

 

[Transistorized]

I'm the same way. The only way I would do repairs is if I purchase a broken machine and then fix it in my own time. Then I could turn around and sell it for a profit. But fixing stuff for people, no thanks.

edit - That cassette mech was crazy ridiculous.

I've never trusted ANY listing that says - Only needs belts. Yeah...right!

 

[Superduper]

I've never trusted ANY listing that says - Only needs belts. Yeah...right!

I agree. But not just from for sale items. It’s my feeling that while a few very simple tape decks can often be reincarnated through belts alone, that phrase “just throw some belts on it” is used way too casually these days. Most finer decks are significantly more complicated than that and are generally very sensitive to even slight changes to friction, torque, electrical issues, lubrication, wear and wobble, material characteristic changes, etc. of which many of these are now possibly factors, I’d say likely even, after 45-50 years of age. 20 years ago, I felt quite confident that belts and cleaning had a moderately decent success rate for restoring a cassette deck. These days I wouldn’t dare quote a job unseen and sometimes, you just don’t know if a deck is fixable or not until you’ve already invested the normal process in time, and thrown money at it to discover that it’s simply no longer repairable. And no, I don’t have a lathe and stock of nylon to make my own parts from scratch. So if it’s an unobtainable part, I ain’t making one to fix it. For that, I guess you’ll have to mail it to Mark in England.

 

[TMR]

My issue is the brittle plastic parts.. where 99% of them are irreplaceable.. i mean sometimes you can find a 3D part of some of the most common gears that fail in a cassette mech.. but if not your S.O.L. you could by a parts box.. but if that part in that box is also a goner than you are now sitting on 2 dead decks.. i have a Sony CFS-99 in mint condition.. but the deck has brittle plastic issues.. so i cannot fix it sadly.. nowadays i just Bluetooth mod it.. to give it a second chance.. i'm also looking into battery modding them with lithium-ion cells.. i have the parts.. we are moving soon and i'm going to have my own work area.. just to repair boomboxes and old receivers.. really looking forward to it..