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Well, this is about as off topic as you can get, but I had to toot my own horn!
I have an old Teac X-1000R "dbx" Reel to Reel deck I got while I was stationed in Japan back in the early 80's, just about when CD's were being born(I still got my $400 Technics single Cd Player, too)! Dang, 20+ years ago, I'm starting to feel old. Well, I had a project that required my recording many hours worth of audio, so that I could get the original tapes back to the owner, but I didn't want to put them on a bunch of cassettes that I didn't have, cause I will eventually be putting them onto my computer for burning onto CDs.
So...I decided to fire up the ol' R2R. Turned the power on, and clunk, nothing moved!!! The take up reels would turn if I fast forwarded or rewound them(they are direct drive motors), but the main capstans and pinch rollers wouldn't engage or move. So....being the Xsive Xplorer I am, I pulled it out of it's double layered case(wooden outer, plastic inner) and pulled the main motor drive unit out to find the remnants of a very spongy/limpy main drive belt!
I remember being able to get a drive belt for my mom's Zenith Console combo AM/FM/Turntable/8-track player at Radio Shack a "few" years ago, so I drove to the store. "Sorry, we haven't carried tape deck belts in our parts catalog for the past 4 years I've been here", retorted the clerk!! Hmmmm, looks like a job for "Internet Surfer" ! !
A quick search led me to a wonderful place called Vintage Electronics.....boy I'm starting to feel old now!!! Dropped them an email, they responded the next day, they had the belt, and for $10.00 and $2.50 S&H I was able to order it, arrived in 3 days! I then got out the electronic parts cleaner, to loosen and remove the old dried out grease that was on the levers and pivots of the pinch roller assemblies, applied liberal amounts of White Lithium Spray grease to the contacting metal parts, mounted the new belt and reassembled the unit. I then had to gently abraid the mild corrosion(from years/decade of exposure to simple room humidity) that had built up on the playback and record heads!!
I then put on a Tape Reel I thought was blank, threaded it thru the drive mechanisms and onto the take up reel, and hit play! Wow, it was the Premier radio broadcast of Pink Floyd's The Division Bell from the local rock station I had recorded 'some time ago'?! Did I mention I was feeling kinda old?! But, the tape deck sprang back to life almost as good as when I had taken it out of it's box over 2 decades ago!!!! Well worth the $500.00 I paid for it back then!
NEW RUBBER IS GOOD ! !
Rock On! 
I have an old Teac X-1000R "dbx" Reel to Reel deck I got while I was stationed in Japan back in the early 80's, just about when CD's were being born(I still got my $400 Technics single Cd Player, too)! Dang, 20+ years ago, I'm starting to feel old. Well, I had a project that required my recording many hours worth of audio, so that I could get the original tapes back to the owner, but I didn't want to put them on a bunch of cassettes that I didn't have, cause I will eventually be putting them onto my computer for burning onto CDs.
So...I decided to fire up the ol' R2R. Turned the power on, and clunk, nothing moved!!! The take up reels would turn if I fast forwarded or rewound them(they are direct drive motors), but the main capstans and pinch rollers wouldn't engage or move. So....being the Xsive Xplorer I am, I pulled it out of it's double layered case(wooden outer, plastic inner) and pulled the main motor drive unit out to find the remnants of a very spongy/limpy main drive belt!
I remember being able to get a drive belt for my mom's Zenith Console combo AM/FM/Turntable/8-track player at Radio Shack a "few" years ago, so I drove to the store. "Sorry, we haven't carried tape deck belts in our parts catalog for the past 4 years I've been here", retorted the clerk!! Hmmmm, looks like a job for "Internet Surfer" ! !
A quick search led me to a wonderful place called Vintage Electronics.....boy I'm starting to feel old now!!! Dropped them an email, they responded the next day, they had the belt, and for $10.00 and $2.50 S&H I was able to order it, arrived in 3 days! I then got out the electronic parts cleaner, to loosen and remove the old dried out grease that was on the levers and pivots of the pinch roller assemblies, applied liberal amounts of White Lithium Spray grease to the contacting metal parts, mounted the new belt and reassembled the unit. I then had to gently abraid the mild corrosion(from years/decade of exposure to simple room humidity) that had built up on the playback and record heads!!
I then put on a Tape Reel I thought was blank, threaded it thru the drive mechanisms and onto the take up reel, and hit play! Wow, it was the Premier radio broadcast of Pink Floyd's The Division Bell from the local rock station I had recorded 'some time ago'?! Did I mention I was feeling kinda old?! But, the tape deck sprang back to life almost as good as when I had taken it out of it's box over 2 decades ago!!!! Well worth the $500.00 I paid for it back then!
NEW RUBBER IS GOOD ! !
Rock On!
Good album. Good show
!!
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