Ideas!!! Tape starts with highs then goes low...

[baddboybill]

Nope tried 3 tapes and plays fine now

Cool...don't forget to test record out too. Make sure you can record from radio or line-in & it sounds the same on playback, for speed, sound quality, etc.

BTW, I hear AIWA decks are the best for sound & stability. Is that the case or can you even hear the difference. I have little experience with collecting & just starting out.

Aiwa supposedly has best decks when working but some are very hard to work on :-(. I never had one but have been interested in a few

 

[agc]

Make sure the rubber on the pinch roller is in good shape too; if it's too dry it won't keep the tape consistently in alignment on the head. This is an even bigger problem with dual-capstan 'closed loop' decks; although I don't think too many boomers have those

A quick way to check head azimuth: if it's a mechanical 'piano key' deck (non soft-touch or full logic), just press the play button and bottom it out as far as you can, you know; it will go down a wee bit more beyond it's locking point....if the treble comes back when you do this and goes away when you release it, it's time to adjust the head. If that doesn't do it, then the head assembly isn't getting far up enough into the cassette (that also affects pinch roller pressure as they are usually integrated with the head's moving mechanism).....in that case find the notches on the mechanism where the buttons lock down and lightly bend the little tabs that lock into said notches until you get better contact with the tape. A good way to tell if your head assembly isn't getting up there enough is if there is lots of play between where the play button locks down and where it bottoms out.

Does any of this even make sense? Because it took me forever to figure out how to word it and I can only hope I did it right...

 

[Ghettoboom767]

Yes Bill azimuth was my first guess.
Yes I has to do that on my 8989II,now it's beautiful
With the Sharps it's left screw adjusts azimuth,right screw is to tighten
into position.

 

[Cpl-Chronic]

When a tape-head is off center, the first thing you lose is treble & stereo imaging.

Yes Bill azimuth was my first guess.
Yes I has to do that on my 8989II,now it's beautiful
With the Sharps it's left screw adjusts azimuth,right screw is to tighten
into position.

I wasn't sure which screw I was adjusting, I just knew it was the right 1 because most decks have a notch or hole, below the cassette door, where you stick your jeweler's screwdriver in & adjust the tracking or 'azimuth', while it is playing. I call it tracking like a VCR because really, you are adjusting the position of the pickups on the head to better track the tape paths.