RE-201 maintenance

Winny_Pooh

I've just brought over a space echo from my parent's house after it's sat for a few years.
The dry signal is fine but the echo repeats are not sounding & I get a slighty inaudible 1 repeat regardless of settings. Tape is running fine.

I'm concerned that having gone in a plane in check in luggage that the scanning may have magnetised the heads? Then again I can't see this lasting long enough to wipe out the full functionality? 

ESBlonde

It's worth cleaning the heads and having them demagged as a matter of routine maintenance after all this time. You should be able to tell if the heads are 'live' when selected - don't poke them with a screwdriver! After that some contact cleaner on the switches and pots would be a good idea.

There are people that will fix these but the bill can run up if you're not careful. I had a bloke recomended by Roland look at my RE501 years ago, it was a bit 'ouchy', but you do have that sound.

Gagaryn

These things do need serviced.
It's likely that components will have drifted in the 40 yers since it was built. This can be compensated somewhat by adjusting the echo and intensity trimmers on the board. And it is always wise to clean and de gauss the heads.

Might be worth checking the tape you are using too - vintage loops are usually knackered now - you need to find a good modern alternative - I used BASF LGR50 which works well. It's getting expensive nowadays which is why I recently sold the masssive stash of it that I had, If I still had it I would have sent you some.

I do still have a PDF of the service manual I can send you if you don't alreday have it?

Winny_Pooh

The maintenance bit makes sense, I'm just wary of being overcharged. This partivular issue though, I'm not sure if it's actually faulty or the airport scanner did something to the tape or heads.

mburekenge

Tapes need demaging and cleaning but the tapes can wear out also.

Gagaryn

Winny_Pooh said: I'm not sure if it's actually faulty or the airport scanner did something to the tape or heads.

I think they are x ray machines? Assuming that is right it won't make any difference to the machine or the tape. It most likely just needed fixed when it went on the plane so it still needs fixed aften it got off the plane!

Winny_Pooh

@Gagaryn cheers, I will check the switch connections later as google says apparently this is where issues can arise. I've checked the service manual but not sure where/how to troubleshoot the echo output. 

Gagaryn

Winny_Pooh said:

@Gagaryn cheers, I will check the switch connections later as google says apparently this is where issues can arise. I've checked the service manual but not sure where/how to troubleshoot the echo output. 

I doubt that's your issue - I've had a few.

I'd put money on the problem being a combination of shit tape (the oxide wears away), dirty heads which are partially magnetised and component drift that can be often be (partly or fully) compensated for by adjusting the trimmers labelled intensity and echo in the service manual - relevant page below.

Winny_Pooh

@Gagaryn bang on, it was the tape. Replaced it today and it's sounding perfect. I was getting very warbly repeats until I tightened up the first felt washer a fair bit. Also slightly tweaked the internal feedback.

Unfortunately ($%*!) it sounds a fair bit better than the RE20, less clean, more compressed, and just more vibey.

ESBlonde

Winny_Pooh said:

@Gagaryn bang on, it was the tape. Replaced it today and it's sounding perfect. I was getting very warbly repeats until I tightened up the first felt washer a fair bit. Also slightly tweaked the internal feedback.

Unfortunately ($%*!) it sounds a fair bit better than the RE20, less clean, more compressed, and just more vibey.

Yea the RE20 is the poor relation in terms of sound even though it is very good.bBt it's considerably lighter, requires less mantenance and you don't need external foot switches too along with all the real estate to site it.

I stopped gigging my Tape echo years ago and only use it on sessions and such like now, thats wheer it makes the difference.