October 22, 2007
The Underrated and Underappreciated Ace-Tone EC-XX Tape Echoes
As Maestro's Echoplex and several Italian companies' tape echoes began to carve out a new market in guitar and/or vocal effects, Roland had a go at making a tape echo to compete with them, based on the Italian designs, but more or less built like an Echoplex sans tubes/valves, providing pure "echo" sounds, and even some major delay with the last playback head mounted at the end of the tape loop, right before the erase/write tape head.
We've only been restoring Ace-Tones since 2006 but we've come to appreciate their particular sound and what they're great for. But first a little background.
"Ace-Tone" was, we believe but are not sure, a separate company that Roland bought out in the early '70's. They made band-equalizers and perhaps some synths, and Roland used them as sort of their "test bed" company / name where they would roll out a new product and throw the Ace-Tone name on it, to see if there was a market and if the products were what musicians were looking for, and if so, they'd bring the product into the Roland line. The main use of the "Ace-Tone" line was several different synthesizers Roland tried to put out but didn't find much of a market for. In fact, most of the Ace-Tone products were failures, often poorly designed and/or built, but we really think that Roland got it damned right with the Ace-Tone EC-xx Echo Chamber series.
We're fairly sure that Ace-Tone did not product a tape echo unit until Roland bought them, and put out three units that were more or less simpler, solid-state versions of the Echoplexes and other analog tape echoes that were in the market at the time. No tubes so no tube-amp sound but no doubt the thinking was that tubes were expensive, made the unit fragile, and most amps back then had tubes already, if you wanted that sound.
The first Ace-Tone Echo Chamber, the EC-1 (for "Echo Chamber") was a prototype and we don't believe something that was ever on the market - if so, it's rare and there weren't many made. The first full-production unit released and mass-produced weren't not sure of: the Ace-Tone EC-20 has a limited number of buttons in the "mode selector" instead of a knob, and seems much more limited than the Ace-Tone EC-10 "Professional" Echo Chamber. We believe the EC-10 came out first and the EC-20 was meant to be a lower-end, less expensive "entry level" unit, whereas the EC-20 was the "Professional", full-featured model. We have one of each we bought in almost mint condition and have restored and are offering for sale.
The EC-10 pictured below we bought in January 2007, and was a good deal bought from the original owner who had used it little at all before it sat around collecting dust, and probably has less than 80 hour of total use on it, if that, we've put 20-30 hours on it at most. And although it lacks a number of the features that made the Roland RE-series so popular, esp. the infamous RE-201, it's a solid unit that has its own character and provides that rockabilly / country "slapback echo" sound that many people use an RE-201 for.
Neither of the units have a reverb, and the echo pattern selections are more limited on the EC-20, but it has four playback heads, with three in series after the erase/record tape head, which provide three different echoes based on the button selected ("1", "2", "3") as well as a cascade echo that's quite rich and can really give you a nice slapback-type echo that's more than just a single echo (button "1,2,3"). Its last setting (button "4") turns on the playback tape head that's positioned right before the erase/record head, so it gives full play to the loop and on slow speeds can provide around 2+ seconds before an echo, up to somewhat under a second when the speed it turned up.
The EC-10 has a "Selection Knob" with 11 settings, which gives you pretty much all the combinations of playback heads, individually or in combinations. This makes it a more diverse unit, but we can't say that the 11 modes vs. 5 modes doesn't make too much of a difference, since there's about six modes that we think are really worth using on the EC-10 or -20.
The other effect settings are simple and also useful for the high/low levels input and output plugs are the "effect depth" which lets you blend the signal through the unit from completely dry to wet. The other effect we thing makes these units stand out as a tape echo as great as the RE-201 is the "treble boost" switch. The RE-201 is notorious for really taking out a lot of the high end of the sound, due to the reverb, even if off, and the tape itself. The RE-201 and later models just tend to put focus the low end of guitar or vocals run through them and cut the highs, and the treble boost controls (and bass too) on the RE-series barely work at all, having little or no effect on the signal, at least on all the RE-201's we've ever used. They seem set to work for both guitar and vocals, but trying to do both means they do neither well, and are mediocre and not very helpful, even on the later RE-301/501/555 models.
The treble boost on the Ace-Tone EC-10/20, though, is solid, and really carries the high-end of the guitar or vocal sound through the unit and into the echoes (if used) and can even add a bit of treble boost if your effects rig kills off your high end and/or if you're looking for a "brighter" sound. It just sounds cleaner, has more high-end, and doesn't sound as "dark" or muted as the RE-series echoes do.
If we had to compare the two, the RE-201's longer tape loop doesn't actually give nearly as long as echo delay as the "button 4" setting on the EC-20 or the two modes on the EC-10 Professional that turn on the only the last head, since that playback head is at the end of a shorter loop, but still much longer than the furthest RE-201 head. You can get all the slapback sounds out of an EC-10 or EC-20 as you can out of an RE-201, and the cascading (button "1,2,3", or modes 5-10 on the EC-20) effects is similar to some popular settings on the RE-201, which just bypass or add reverb.
The EC-10/20's lacks reverb as said, but they're just very "bright", light-hearted sounding units that we think have been really under-rated and overlooked over the years. We're not sure if it's because they're older, they don't have as many knobs and switches and settings on the front panel, but after the last half-year, we'd rather play with an EC-10/20 than an RE-201 we're sure, since there's lots of other places in an effects chain or with your amp to add reverb. Since reverb is easy to throw in the chain somewhere, we think the EC-10 is the younger, happier sounding little brother to the darker, moodier RE-201 and other RE-series Space / Chorus echoes. We'll even go so far as to say it does the rockabilly / country "slapback" echo better than the RE-201, if you're looking for the really old sound, like that of Elvis' original guitarist on his early albums, "Screamin'" Scotty Moore, although he didn't use an Ace-Tone.
The Ace-Tone EC-10 Professional Echo Chamber pictured is completely restored, with a new tape, heads cleaned and practically new, everything demagnetized, and the pinch roller cleaned with proper rubber cleaner and it can be locked away from the motor spindle (also properly cleaned with capstan cleaner and demag'ed) so you can change the tape. The lights work and this baby comes almost new, and even has that "new car smell" as if it was just taken new out of the box.
Here's some photos of this beauty, which was sold in Autumn 2007, unfortunately. We didn't have a choice and hope to be in a position to get another Ace-Tone EP-10 some time soon.
Close up of the controls on the EC-10 Professional.
Another shot of the EC-10 Pro controls, input and output plugs.
A third view of the controls and in/out plugs, from an angle.
The unit lid open, showing the power cable storage, tape heads and loop.
Close up of the tape loop, tape heads, pinch roller w/motor and tape tensioner arm.
A wider shot of the tape loop chamber, with the pinch roller locked off to help with tape replacement.
Close up of the pinch roller and tape motor spindle, with the roller locked off, and also a great view of the spring-loaded tape tensioner arm. Note the two-prong ungrounded plug, something that didn't appear on Roland tape echoes until the last RE-201 revisions and later models.
A top-down shot of the pinch roll, motor spindle & tensioner arm.
Side show with cooling vent which lies where the side feet are mounted.
Backside view, with an opening to allow cooling and an XLR output plug with its own gain control.
Close up of the XLR balanced "Line Out" plug with -20db to -70db gain control knob.
The serial number tag, will run off 50Hz or 60Hz A/C at 117V which covers many countries, runs perfectly off U.S. power. Uses a two prong plug, ungrounded but no signs (or sounds) of hum or any kind of feedback.
October 13, 2007
Roland Space / Chorus Echoes for Various Countries
So, Roland being as large a company as it is, and looking to pare down the parts and expensive of tape echo units, rather than making them operate over various differences in AC "domestic" plugs for their main markets: Japan (and Asia), the U.S., the U.K. and Europe, decided instead to release units built specifically for those countries, rather than have them adjustable as some of the Ace-Tone units that were made before Roland bought them were, such as the Ace-Tone EC-20 we've decided to sell, since we've an EC-10 we're keeping - at least right now, the choice continues to waiver between the two.
What does this mean? It means that the RE-101 to RE-501/SRE-555's were made for one of the four markets above (there may be more, but those are the four we've run into, so while we think it's covering everything, we don't claim its definitive, please mail us if you have or have used a Roland RE-series Space / Chorus Echo that was made for another country than the four above.
An important note, quoting from Wikipedia on A/C Domestic Plugs:
It is a common misconception that the purpose of the earth connection is to take fault currents safely to earth. The primary purpose of the earthing system is to cause a fuse to blow or a breaker or a residual-current device (RCD) to trip to automatically disconnect the power supply to any device or cable which develops a wiring fault.
Here's what each country's "domestic" A/C ("alternating current") plugs are spec'ed for. We were going to make a chart, but we think it's just easier to go to the Wikipedia entry on AC Power Plugs and look up the country your Roland RE echo was made for.
In short (pun intended), the point of this whole entry is that you can't just get plug adapter that changes the plug size or number of prongs or what have you - we learned a very expensive and important lesson that a Roland tape echo built for the U.K. has every circuit, voltage converter, and other parts of the power system built to expect 220-240V (220V nominal) 50Hz A/C power, and if you hit it with too much or too little (such as U.S. 115V @ 60Hz) you will smoke and fry the entire system. Later RE-201s after the first run, and all RE-301s, 501s and 555's have fuses, but they didn't blow in time to help, since the voltage was less, but the 60Hz power seemed to smoke up quite a few parts on the U.K. RE-201 system before we could unplug it. The only scent we've smelled that was worse is that of burning flesh, quite frankly.
So if you have a unit from say, Korea, like we were recently contacted about, it is really best to buy a power conversion system that will take a normal U.S. A/C three-prong plug output and convert it to the 220-240V 50Hz power that the unit expects.
The converters aren't cheap, and we haven't used many, but we have read good things about the "Lashen" (spelling?) brand as we recall. But no matter the expense, it will be much cheaper than trying to rewire and convert an entire unit's power system to use U.S. spec'ed A/C power instead - you would end up having to replace almost every electrical component in the system.
This is a reason we're really come to appreciate the Ace-Tone echoes we've been restoring and playing with this past year. They don't have anywhere near the options and settings of a Roland, and the tape loop is very short, but they're extremely well-built and made to work in almost all the major countries.
So here's a review of discussion we had with someone on the subject, about the RE-201 he had bought in Korea.
Cam Stretch wrote:
I've been searching for a power solution for my Space Echo that I purchased
while in Korea. I collected my gear when I returned home after two years,
plugged it in only to find that the Space Echo needed more juice! Do you
have any power converter suggestions that would be reasonably portable? Can
I actually swap out the old converter and up the power handling?
We're quite surprised he didn't fry it, but since the voltage in the U.S. is
half of what it expected, hopefully it didn't do any permanent damage. We replied:
You would need to find a power converter that converts U.S. power plugs and ratings to whatever they use in Korea. Swapping converters is very risky, since the circuits aren't made to handle U.S. power ratings, and there are separate ones for the motor and the signal effects circuit boards, just for starters.A converter that takes U.S. power and converts to Korean ratings/plug style
is the way to go, and a search of the Web should turn something like that up,
but we can't recommend anything right now, sorry.
Cam wrote back:
Thanks for the recomendations. I have a RE-201 with a Japanese plug on it! I do have a plug a adaptor but I guess I need something that will handle a power conversion rather then just a plug conversion.
Absolutely correct!! So we replied:
Yes, definitely, DO NOT buy just an adaptor, because the standard power voltage, cycles, etc. are different, and plugging it into a U.S. source will cook most of the circuits and voltage converters! Trust us, we've smoked one ourselves, a very expensive mistake!The old Ace-Tone tape echoes, at least the EC-20 model and later, before
Roland bought them out, used to come with a converter plug on the back that
allow you to switch the voltage (117V works in the U.S.) and had a power
conditioner inside that would regulate the cycles on the A/C power between
50-60Hz to whatever is used internally. It's one of the things we've grown to
love about the Ace-Tones before Roland bought them out - they don't offer
anywhere near the number of options and features, and the tape loop is short,
but they have a great tone, they really keep the high-end sound without
muffling it at all (in fact, the EC-20 has a "Treble" switch to boost the
high-end frequencies from a guitar.)So whatever you do, if your tape echo was made to run off the power of a
different country, you want a power converter, not adapter.
You'll probably spend USD $80-200 depending but it's worth it if you have a
clean tape echo in very good (VG) or better shape.We'll be working on a Watkins Copicat soon so we'll have more info on our blog
about this whole subject when we get to that!
We also hope to do more of a writeup on dismissing our concept of "Version 1", "v2" and "v3" RE-201's but just list the changes made over the years. We don't think now, after working on over three dozen RE-201's, that Roland made a couple of major revisions, but was instead constantly revising the design of the unit, so we will just try to compile a list of all the differences, such as the evolution of the power plug from a wide-base two-prong to a smaller one with a one wider prong (for proper polarity) to the three-prong grounded plugs used in the later RE-301's and all RE-501's and SRE-555's.
We hope you'll find this info helpful, and that future entries as we gather photos and research info for our book will also come in handy.
October 10, 2007
Great News! Steven Cantor's "Beats & Pieces" Returns
For almost 13 years, in sometimes changing time periods and some times two days, most times three, the world's best free-form DJ, Portland's own Mr. Steven Cantor, is returning to the airwaves! His new version of "Beats & Pieces" is only one night a week, Sunday nights 9PM to midnight on community college radio station KMHD (89.1 FM). This is a bit of an odd fit, and Mr. Cantor will undoubtedly be trying to focus his show on the station's normal format, which is jazz, with blues show on Friday afternoons and evenings.
Still, this is fantastic news, and KMHD is extremely well-respected as one of the few radio stations still dedicated solely to jazz & blues (the most famous jazz record label is called "Blue Note", after all) and with its growing listenership and contributions, they have expanded their transmission power over the years to its current... well, the history section on their Web site is somewhat lacking, and doesn't have a short writeup on how they've grown over the last 23 years.
You can also listen to them on the Internet although I still have problems, after several years, with their use of Abacast, but they offer the following channels:
48K MP3 Stream from Abacast and 20K Stream from Abacast (will launch a new window). The 48K stream is stereo and you can copy the link and use Winamp to play it, which I highly recommend over the 20K stream in a new window (unless you have Firefox, where you can force new windows to open in the existing one, like I do.)
Their history reads:
"Playing jazz for more than 22 yearsas a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to providing quality jazz, blues, and traditional American music 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Since 1984, we have been playing the music and promoting the great sounds of jazz. Recently we added national radio programs from NPR and independent producers. We have locally produced specialty shows such as Trad Jazz, Juke Box Saturday Night, and Latin Jazz on Monday nights. Stay tuned for the fun!"
So for those who've had to sit and listen to me rant on about how amazing Mr. Cantor is as a free-form DJ, and how he makes it the art-form it is, and takes it to levels I've never heard before, not even on the famous WFMU in NJ. So start listening in Sunday nights at 9PM on KMHD 89.1 FM or one of the Web streams above - it's a great way to end your week and start the new one on a good note (pun intended.)
October 09, 2007
Sticking Tape on RE-301 Chorus Echo Tape Heads
Following up our entry with photos of a pristine looking but in need of a major cleaning and restoring job of an RE-301 we received from its original owner, we also have footage of a brand-new tape loop sticking to the tape heads themselves due to the wear on the heads from the old tape not only pulling loose then tight repeatedly, but not staying in the tape guide path and so moving below the normal line and wearing a very slight but very important and difficult to clear up groove in the tape heads that, along with how worn they were and in need of a very thorough cleaning, was causing the tape to stick to the heads or get "caught" in the guides by being in the grooves/slots of those but being pulled down by the worn groove in heads - even enough to complete stop the tape. That and the tape itself just sticking to the record/erase or one of the two trailing playback heads.
Here are the videos of tape sticking to worn tape heads on an RE-301 hosted on YouTube with lousy focus and narration - hey, you get what you way for:
RE-301 Space Echo tape sticking to playback head problem video #1:
RE-301 Space Echo tape sticking to playback head problem video #2:
October 08, 2007
Restoring a Pristine Roland RE-301 Chorus Tape Echo
So we just recently finished a great restoration job on a pristine RE-301. It was sent by the original owner and honestly, we have never seen an RE-301 that was this nice - it looked like it was fresh out of the box - but the problem was that while it looked fantastic, the motor was pretty much dead, although we were able to fix it so that it kinda works, but lacks the torque for an RE-301 - it'll probably be fine on an early RE-201 or earlier unit, and the tape had really worn the tape heads due to bad tensioning, etc. It took a lot more work that we originally estimated, but we've been sitting on the last new M-502E-B02 Pioneer motor, so we got the owner's go-ahead and put it in this baby, since it only seemed fair to put a new motor in a unit that was so nice - now it's pretty much as close to "new, out of the box" as you can get. So here's some photos of going through to clean the pots, plugs and replace the motor.
We'll have another entry that shows video of the tape sticking through the heads, which through a lot of cleaning and adjustment we were able to solve. That should be the posting right after this one.
So onward to some photos of restoring a pristine-looking but a very worn RE-301 that required a lot of cleaning, lubrication, resurfacing, a new tape, etc. That's the one downside of these analog wonders: they do require, like a pet, a lot of attention and maintenance to properly care for them.
Here's the RE-301 opened up, with the electronics unit set outside the case, with two cables still connected back to the spring reverb tank that is attached to the bottom of the case. You can see how complex the circuit boards are - the one mounted above the motor is designed only to regulate the power and handle the rate & intensity controls for the motor, and little else:
This is a shot of the cleaned and lubed rubber pinch roller, which is disengaged from holding the tape against the motor spindle (also called "capstan" but Roland uses that term for the roller that provides tension and straight path as the tape enters the tape head area. The opening with the threaded post with two nuts is the adjustment for how far the pinch roller moves, allowing one to adjust how tight the pinch roller is held against the tape and motor spindle. Too tight causes tape wear and can even slow the motor down and wear it as it tries to spin faster but can't - but too loose and the tape will slip, which is far worse, as it can cause the dreaded "wobbling" sound and is also very bad for the condition of the tape loop:
Here's a closeup of the pinch roller adjustment arm:
Here's the circuit board, mounted above the motor in the RE-301/501 and SRE-555 which controls the power supply to the motor, and handles the rate and intensity controls:
Removing the circuit board from two mounting arms to expose the motor for replacement. You can also see the electronic solenoid that engages the pinch roller against the tape loop when the power is turned on, and the voltage transformer that's needed to provide power to the motor:
Here's the inspection sticker, which you can get to when you remove the motor on an RE-301. The names are signed with Japanese stamps, and you can see this is an RE-301, S/N 867560.
A photo of the old motor which explains a mystery. The new motor is also the same exact model: Type M-502E-B02, which was used in later RE-201's and all the RE-301/501's and SRE-555's we've ever seen, 24 volts, which is what the power supply converter is for, and the unique Lot No. info which is unique to each motor. This old one is "Lot 9, G14".
The mystery this motor cleared up is why Roland switched from having the motors manufactured for them by a company called Sayama but switched to Pioneer-made motors, like the new one we put in this unit. As you can see from this photo, for awhile it was called "Sayama-Pioneer" and some research on the Web shows that indeed, Pioneer bought out the Sayama company, and while the motors were probably made in the same factory by the same employees, and were even the same design, Pioneer added its name after the buyout and eventually replaced the "Sayama" name with just "Pioneer" after a couple of years. The Sayama logo on the left stayed on the labels for years after the name was changed to Pioneer only, and if you can't read well, these are DC BRUSHLESS MOTORs.
Here's a photo of the label on the new ("NOS" - "New/Old Stock") replacement motor, perhaps the last one sold by Roland before they discontinued selling parts, and you can see that the name was changed to "Pioneer" although the Sayama logo remains on the left side, and it's the same exact model as the old one: Type M-502E-B02, 24 volts of course, and the new one's unique Lot No. is "5K1". Pioneer, we're guessing, must have changed the system/format used to mark each unit. We're not sure if it's just a serial number or if it has information "encoded" in it - unlikely that it does, since it's so short, so it's probably just a serial number - the motor made after this one was undoubtedly stamped "5K2".
Sliding in a brand-new motor, mounted on a squarish semi-box that holds it, fitting it in where the previous motor resided - a tight squeeze:
A shot of the main unit sitting outside the case, with two cables still attached and leading back to the spring reverb tank that's mounted on the bottom of the black particle board wood case:
A surrealistic photo of the complex circuit boards in the RE-301 (as compared to earlier models) and all the plugs and pots for the many controls on an RE-301 front panel: each needs to be cleaned, tested, and possibly adjusted - boring but necessary work.
Close-up: voltage regulator to the left, the motor power/control circuit board in the middle, and two black cables coming up from the motor, semi-hidden below, that plug into the circuit board. As you can see, the Roland tape echo motors are far more complex than those found in most reel-to-reel 1/4" tape decks. One set of wires in a black cable is dedicated just to providing a constant, stable power supply to the motor, regardless of what speed it is operating at, and the other provides independent controls to determine how fast the motor should spin. Many motors simple control their speed by raising and lower the power supply, but this design, while much more complex and expensive, provides a far more stable and consistent motor speed.
The "Folded Line Reverberation Device" made by O.C. Electronics, "Manufactured by beautiful girls in Milton, Wis." (Wisconsin, USA) "... under controlled atmospheric conditions." Well, you can tell the company and vast majority of their customers are men. Then again, anything manufactured by "beautiful women" is undoubtedly vastly superior. And the "controlled atmosphere conditions" comment is a joke as well - spring reverbs are hardly high-tech science. Note the model is a "Type 60" which is the only model of the Folded Line series we've ever found in Roland tape echoes.
The unit put back together, awaiting a new tape - we have another blog entry that shows tape threading and are writing one about loading tape, with an empty but spotless clean tape chamber:
Here's a shot of the re-assembled and cleaned up RE-301 with a new motor inside. Little did we know there were many, many more hours of testing, lubing and cleaning ahead of us as we ran into the problem of the tape sticking, but we kept turning the unit on to test it while reassembling it, and after taking this photo were were able to run the unit for an hour with any problems, including the tape heads and guard heating up, which the owner had mentioned as a major problem.
Assembled unit, running the tape for testing and to stretch it out - it takes about 5-6 hours of play for a new tape loop to be fully stretched and "conditioned", according to the Roland RT-1L tape spec sheets, so we like to run them for a few hours to start to work them in and make sure the unit isn't going to have any "sticking" problems, which this one did.
That's the end of our little photo tour - we hope you've enjoyed it as much as we did making it. We can't say the same about fixing the tape sticking problems but ultimately the machine is currently sitting quietly in a box waiting to be returned to its original owner, who's been very patient as we've worked on this over a 2+ week period. Thanks Dave!
Properly Threading Tape on RE-201 and later Roland Tape Echoes
This Article is Under Rewrite
We have found that different RE-series models must be threaded differently, and that if a motor is weaker (less torque) than when it was new, it is often better to thread a tape so that there's less tension from the posts found in the tape chamber.
Today we started working on the most pristine, beautiful, like new Roland RE-301 we've ever seen - the total opposite of our RE-301, which is missing all sorts of stuff and has been beat to crap and gigged heavily - but then again, we bought it for $40 so we can't complain.
That said, unfortunately this unit has major wear on the tape heads, especially the erase/record head - on the RE-301 Chorus Echoes, they added the "Sound-On-Sound" function, which basically allows you to turn off the erase function of that head so you can record over what's already on the tape, layering on top of the existing recording, hence "sound-on-sound". Anyway, because the felt lined tension bar that holds the tape against the capstan roller wasn't tight, the felt was worn and had no "grab", nor did the roller under the top of the capstan (hence the name) have any grab, it was smooth as ice, and the pinch roller pushing the tape against the motor spindle was slipping a bit too... all these factors led to the tape coming loose against the heads, and not coming into contact at all with them, and when it did, it was moving up and down, the completely height of the heads, not following a very straight track.
The results? Massive wear on the erase/record head, and on the first two playback heads, and bad wear on the other two playback heads, and a problem where if the unit was run for 1.5 hours (according to the owner, who bought this baby new) the tape head guard would get hot. We quickly determined by running it that the tape moving against the heads and then way, back and forth, all the while also moving up and down, well, it was creating a ton of friction that made the erase/record head pretty warm after only running it ten minutes. We knew a thorough cleaning would get everything back into shape, although we're concerned the heads are beyond saving, and that because of the wear, they'll destroy the new tape, and it'll still create a lot of friction since the wear path isn't regular.
So we're writing this post to explain the important things to avoid this problem where the tape literally wears the heads and makes even the guard hot to the touch:
- Tapes need to be replaced once a year, unless you play a lot, then 2 or even 3 times a year.
- The capstan roller itself spins underneath the cap, and shouldn't be smooth, it should be bare metal so it "grabs" the tape, and combined with the felt-lined tension bar, holds the tape firmly against the tape heads - not too tight, which is actually hard to do unless the roller doesn't spin, but definitely not too loose!
- Obviously, the pinch roller needs to be clean and also have enough "grab" to hold and push the tape against the motor spindle, which also should be cleaned and not too smooth, so it pulls the tape firmly and consistently.
- And of course, everything spoken about above, and the tape heads, should be cleaned and demagnetized, at least twice as often as the tape is changed, unless you like the "dirty" sound.
We've found that none of the Roland tape echoes we work on have the tape properly threaded through the chamber, so this time we took some photos to show where the tape should have been going, around the three posts. It wasn't going around two and was on the wrong side of the other, which is one of the reasons that the tape was coming loose and not even touching the record/erase head at times.
Since a picture is worth a thousand words, and we get sick of typing, here's some photos showing where the tape should go in Roland RE-201 and later model tape echoes:
Under Construction
New Photos Coming Soon!
So whenever you install a new tape in your machine, make sure you get it going around these post correctly! It's a minor detail but very important in ensuring proper tape tension and getting the longest life out of each tape loop and the tape heads as well.