Re: [ARSCLIST] Repairing (or purchasing) a Uher

["Richard L. Hess" <arclists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 03:09 PM 6/14/2006, Scott D. Smith wrote:
> The Studer B-67, A-810, and Otari
> MTR-10/12 would all be good candidates for this purpose, and probably
> the Ampex ATR-100 as well. Any of these machines will treat the tape
> much more gently than the Uher ever will.

None of these machines (except ATR Services' supply of ATR-100 parts) 
have readily available spares anymore. Only the A807 is supported.

I haven't tried getting the A810 "jeeped" to 1-7/8 in/s but with the 
native vari-speed it doesn't get close enough.

As for 15/16, the APR-5000 capstan servo is unstable at that speed 
using an external varispeed drive. I had hoped to be able to run 
logging tapes on my Sony transports because of the challenges of 
maintaining the Dictaphone and other one-off (for me) machines. I 
stock APR-5000 parts (as in used carcasses) in depth, and many of 
those work on the APR-16 as well.

Here is a report on my experimentation with the APR-5000 and APR-16 
in non-circuit-modified slow-speed modes.

http://richardhess.com/notes/2006/03/06/sony-apr-speed-experiments/


> We have modified two of our machines to play at 1 7/8 IPS with good
> success.

Which machines? B67? A810?

> I'm not sure what the issues are with getting the capstan
> servo to run at 15/16 IPS, but it is probably relatively simple, as
> the speed is changed by a series of logic divider chips.

As long as the overall system is stable. I'm starting to think the 
best use of my ReVox A77 at this point would be a 15/16 and 15/32 
deck, but I'd still rather convince the APR-5000s to do that as I 
have many more head options for that platform and since there's only 
a play hum shield in the A77 you can't really use the record nest for 
an alternate format head, even on the MK III machine with the Mu 
metal hum shield below the heads.


> You might want to contact John French at JRF and see if he can provide
> some specific recommendations. Their phone is 973-579-5773.

I can second the recommendation for JRF - great guy.

Cheers,

Richard

Richard L. Hess                   email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Aurora, Ontario, Canada       (905) 713 6733     1-877-TAPE-FIX
Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.