23/11/2025
Weeks turned into months but i am back!😄
I have completed my new restoration setup strictly dedicated for magnetic tape medium (for now, mainly cassette decks).
There will also be photos of my first ever setup when i started fixing cassette decks in 2022 with the bare minimum of tools (and i really mean bare minimum).
The new youtube video format is also finished and it includes measurement data from the cassette deck presented after it's been restored at the beginning of the video.
Now a bit of a back story of where it all started:
It all started when i was 16 and bought my first ever cassette deck allegedly "serviced", only then to find out most "serviced/restored" decks sold really mean "i swapped the belts and it outputs sound now".
The deck didn't quite work right as the the sound was "wobbly" and the real time counter stopped working
I opened it up with no past experience on decks or frankly any other analogue device and had noticed the backtension belt was melted onto the reflective strips (someone didn't bother replacing that :/) and the capstan belt was hugely inconsistent thickness wise.
Swapped everything out with new belts and everything worked right again. Except it wasn't so easy as i had lost the retaining clip of one reel and it took an additional 4 hours of moving couches to find it 😂
I had eventually sold the deck and the person i sold it to called me weeks later and told me i should start restoring tape decks.
It all started there, first on the coffe table, then on a slightly bigger one, then two.. then more and more tools, reasearch about what lubricants to use, wich belts and rollers are the best, restoration of motors with deadspots, modifications, frankenstein mechanisms,
externally adjustable per channel bias/level with custom PCB's, replacement of 4066 chips and much more.
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My services are now available in EU as well as outside of EU.
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Experience on all major brands and mechanisms, especially on:
- All decks with sankyo mechanisms (50+ of all variants fully restored)
- Pioneer Reference Mechanism (20+ fully restored)
- Akai Reference Mechanism (10+ fully restored)
- Nakamichi Classic transport (7 fully restored, including Double DD)
- Sony TCM-200 transport (20+ fully restored)
And many more
Tools:
M 300 Alignment Gauge
FULL TRACK Alignment tapes
Various tape path checking tapes
+more
The main service i offer is "Full Restoration" wich is also the only one i give a warranty to and it includes:
- Full mechanical restoration
- Replacement of electrolytic capacitors (if needed)
- Replacement of other types of capacitors known to fail
- Cleaning of switches/potentiometers (and replacement of microswitches where possible)
- General cleaning of the interior case/pcb's
- Full mechanical and electronical realignment
After the restoration is finished a full performance report is printed wich will be received by the owner. The last photos in this post are a few pages of the performance report.
Restoration posts will also be back alongside with YouTube Videos.
