You MUST have either a Professional Test Tape for alignment
or (second best) a studio-made "House Tones Set-up tape" made by a very qualified tech who has
a 'real' professional alignment tape of his or her own and has set-up
your machine correctly, then made a set of 'House Tones' on a tape for you to use...
| if you don't have your own Test Tone Tape, you can buy them from MRL directly at: https://www.mrltapes.com/ |
| Other manufacturers of Test Tapes Note I have NOT used anything from the following 3 !!! https://www.gennlab.com/index.html http://anlenaudio.com/12-test-tapes https://www.atrservice.com/about-our-calibration-tape |
You MUST have a Head Demagnetization unit -
the ONLY one to buy - and the ONLY one that really works -
is the one shown below.... this is the one I use.
the "Han-D-Mag" (I use the 'short' model)
| Order DIRECT from the manufacturer - R.B. Annis this is the RB Annis Demager link |
Cost is only about $ 100.00 directly from R.B. Annis Company
I'm going to do a video soon about how to de-mag heads... come back in a few days...
You MUST have Head Cleaner and Q-tips.
You're lucky on this one, since the normal Head Cleaner is nothing more
than "Isopropyl Alcohol" which will cost you all of two dollars at your
grocery store! Buy the stuff that's 90 - 99% alcohol.
Also make sure to buy Q-tips that are either the wood stick or the
paper stick - do NOT buy the plastic stick ones!!!
You MUST have a good Magnifying Glass, and a small flashlight
- the only way to really clean your heads is to look through a magnifying
glass at the heads and guides, especially after playing any 'bad' tape!!
You may think you've cleaned the heads, but 'tape gunk' really
sticks to the heads and guides and tape-lifters like glue (which it is!).
Some clients have brought in Tape Recorders for repair
where it's taken more than 10 Q-tips and cleaner to get
all the tape gunk off the heads and guides,
so don't think that you can just wipe a head with a single Q-tip !!
You've got to check by looking at the heads and guides....
That's it.... just 4 things you MUST have....
of course there are other things you SHOULD have...
a Splicing block - in good condition -
(alas I am OUT of stock on all splicing blocks... )
- splicing tape, leader tape, spare empty reels...
a small bottle of high-quality 'bearing oil' to lubricate
various things that turn... guides, tape-scrape filters and so on...
a can of "LPS-1 Greaseless Lubricant" to use as a spray cleaner
