1971 Sony TC-540 Reel-to-Reel Tape Recorder Overhaul
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- Опубліковано 10 вер 2024
- I picked this reel to reel recorder/player from a picker friend I met on Craigslist in need of repair. It was not working. Mechanism was pretty much completely frozen and the parts that weren't frozen were sluggish. In this video we'll completely clean and re-lubricate the entire mechanism and then we'll clean and adjust the electronics. We'll finally listen to it with some mysterious vintage tapes I found on the side of the road in someone's trash!
I bought one brand new from Japan in 1969 while I was in Vietnam. Shipped it and a Pioneer SX-1000TW receiver home in January 1970 when I went back to the States. I played in a band with some friends after I got back, and we used that recorder to record hours and hours of beer and pot filled music. The recorder is long gone, but I still have the tapes. I listen to them once in a while and think about the fun times we had making them, even if they are terrible.
This is the one!! This is the tape deck my much older brother had when I was a kid. I've been looking for pictures of it for many a year, and you have it in your hands - this makes me so happy. I had the TC-230 myself, handed down from my dad. Thanks!
Those coils/adjustments you did not want to touch are the record bias adjustments. The coil is part of the bias oscillator circuit. It applies an AC voltage to each track of the R/P head. The schematic probably gives the correct value but it will probably not be optimum for later high-quality tape stock.
But, as they say, if it ain't broke don't try to fix it.
Good job there, mate! I think this is one of the best videos on the topic of Sony tape recorders I've seen so far. The great thing is that Sony used identical, or very similar mechanisms on a lot of its machines from the 60s and 70s. This can serve as a pretty good tutorial on how to fix them all.
That's good to know since I have accidentally picked up another one since making this video! That one is running slowly and will need service as well. This was the first reel tape machine I've serviced in probably 15 years. The last one was just a belt change, so this was a refresher and learning experience for me as well.
Just found a tc 500 for free. Powers on, prob need a good clean, belts. Thank so much for this vid!
That tape recorder looks like it used to be used for office dictations and memos and it's good to see it working again after all these years and it's pretty cool how all of the older technology holds up through the rest of time
Interesting. You've invented a whole new lexicon of terms and names for tape transport parts we've known and loved for decades. Cool. BUT, in the end, despite the used mystery tapes, you overcame and succeeded. Good job.
Sony, as you know, was a top self manufacture and like other companies , provided testing and alignment tapes to their service centers. You put the tape on and different frequency tones were used to adjust head alignment, output levels and eq. I had 2 or3 for different manufactures service tapes in the 70s and 80s. You might find one for this machine, although probably not. What you have done will get you in the ballpark. I started tech school in 1971, and although I was a full fledged solder jock, my experience with one of these was none. Great video. Brought back many fond memories! Thankz
Thanks for watching. As always, I appreciate your thoughtful expertise and commentary. I did not know about the service tapes, but that certainly does make sense. In the absence of such a tape, I could also play a tape with songs in a known tuning and compare to my guitar tuner. I've done that before when setting record speed trimmers.
The Guitologist I really, really love your channel and I hope any tips I can pass along are taken as they are given. I have a lot of knowledge I could share with those interested, but I'm not going to start my own channel, so to share on your site is a treat for me! Thankz
You are always MORE than welcome to share your thoughts, even if they are critical to something I'm doing. I don't claim to be an expert on everything, or anything really. The suffix "ologist" just means "someone who studies", not "someone who is an expert in". ;)
The Guitologist That's Great! In these days of "trolls", it is important to be clear of ones intentions. You do projects that are near and dear to me. I'm just grateful you have this channel. It is great entertainment! I have been a guitar, bass, keyboards even vocal teacher so I like sharing! I'm getting ready to build my first tube guitar amp, from the frame up, and I may call upon you for your thoughts, so"........ Thankz
I love filthy mechanisms. so much progress so quickly!
What an absolute treat to come upon this video , I'm actually looking for a reel to reel to do recording with on a mixer , WOW the attn to care & detail you take with everything you repair I'm in Canada and would love to send you a 1970's Sears Amp with Mos-Fet I bet you could get it working properly.
Super helpful video. I've been trying to restore one of these myself and finally determined the main problem was the spring not pulling up the pinch roller all the way to make good contact with the capstan (looks like it lost tension after being stretched out in the "rewind" position for a few decades). I'm still not sure how to actually fix that, but at least I'm on the way. :D
I really enjoy your videos about vintage audio equipment. Thanks!
Thanks, Frank. I appreciate you watching and taking time to comment.
I can't believe they've gone from this to mp3 Bluetooth speaker! And they call it progress?? Your telling me they have the ability to make TV s look identical to 35mm film, yet you can't do any better in audio? Nothing has come close to reel to reel yet! Yeah, they have dsd and 192/24 , but who's using it on a mass scale?
Wow the voicing and harmony on the first tape was really good.
My father has a Sony TC-530 that I'll try and clean up and restore. I'm quite sure it still works but it hasn't been used in 20+ years. Fun little project.
Nice restore and tape find!
Another great one Brad!
Nice job Brad. You turned a nice find into a great deal. btw,, nice score on those tapes. They are getting sooo hard to find anymore.
Yeah, I actually found the family of the main people on the tapes. They don't even seem to live in my area, oddly enough. I'll offer them to them if they ever return my messages.
They threw them out once brad, probably would again. I really enjoyed the choir (even though muffled due to pressure pad issue)
Hi Carl, nice to see you here bro.
Parabéns pela explicação passos a passo, bem explicado, e como funciona cada mecanismo do aparelho e seus defeitos agradeço e Parabéns pelo video!!
You are trying to play a half-track tape on 1/4-track (stereo) heads. This will cause the right channel to be approx 6dB down from the left channel. But a stereo 1/4-track tape on eBay and try playing that!
that drum solo sounded like Buddy. This inspired me to play some reels. Gonna make a Christmas one from my Doctor Demento collection .
I miss his radio show. Also, I have about 4 Buddy Rich albums on vinyl. :)
Great fix!!!!
I just got a Sony TC-155 and it's got similar components and parts to this model. Mine played fine for 1 and then 1/2 of a 3" reel and then it just all of a sudden in the middle of playing bogged down to a crawl. There was a hot oil/grease smell throughout the entire time I was running it. The motor was scalding hot when I took the cabinet off. What could be the problem? It had no audio hum or any bad sounds the whole time it was playing and sounded very nice, then it just went kaput and slowed down.
I just traded for one of these, I know very little having owned it for two hours,....want to restore it to proper working order, and your great video, hopefully I won't have to do much electronics repair, but I could if I have to., I believe. Anyway, I wanted to have an example around since I was reading how tape was invented and refined in Germany and then brought over to the USA post ww2, very interesting and all. I suppose this is a single track, not even two track, must do more viewing and reading of materials, I mean, I am older than 1971, so I've seen this sort of stuff before.
Now, for me, my new vintage used item, that I want to save and repair/use at least for study, I just cleaned the head, and played it, one speaker side aint playing, I think it could be internal, hopefully I won't have to rebuild electronics somehow. And then it suddenly after fifteen minutes started having trouble playing like someone is rubbing or etc etc,...to be expected, I am glad it sort of works,...something to play aroind with, I wanted to study vintage reel to reel, and at least this was "stereo", and not some old home tape recorder like my mother had laying around that she had from the fifties(wished I had it, haha, at least it was donated years ago to salvation army) . I don't know nothing bout this, but I did want like a teac 4 track I saw on youtube, maybe this is "4 track" as well, but I suspect its just a 2 channel reel to reel.
You probably are just trying a recording which was recorded on only one channel (mono). Maybe that's why it isn't playing on the other channel. Try fast forwarding the tape onto the takeup reel and flipping the tapes around backward. See if the program plays backwards but on the other channel.
Oh thanks, I was thinking that could be the problem, one channel recording of some sort of music..I need to service it,, the machine started playing slow and is having trouble moving the tape,...but of course it needs some sort of service, and your video really will help me refurbish it, improve, "restore" it, the old grease inside has definitely made the fast forward button almost impossible to use for instance. It will be some great experience, I just need to come up with more tape. Over on Clydesight channel, he told me its from the golden age of Sony tape recorders, and that it is indeed 4 track 2 channel. I wonder if its possible to put new carbon brushes in the motor,...I restored an old sewing machine recently and put carbon brushes in it, but, errrrr, it probably takes some serious knowledge to do it on these motors.
I also just bought a couple belts and a service manual on cd off of ebay. Ya know, I just noticed on your video that you didn't bother with any new belts, but eh, I guess it wouldn't hurt me to do it. Ya know, what I worry about, is that of capacitors,...after all these years, ya know, they are elecrolytic and supposedly by now on their last leg,...ideally, I would like to replace all the capacitors of course, errrr, if I keep it or whatever. I figure you didn't feel the need to do any capacitor replacement on you sony.
By the time this was made, capacitors were a little better than they had been. Yes, if you wanted to make doubly sure you won't have to break it open again for 40 years, replace caps, but my amp and all signal was good on the electronics portion. I didn't feel the need.
Thanks for the video, attempting to work on an audiovox unit with same issues.
Brad, there is an auto shut off micro switch attached to a wire in the tape path next to the erase head. When a tape is across it, it stays back, and the motor is on. Hold that back, and the motor goes on. When you put it in play, ff, or rew, that wire moves toward you with no tape across it, and turns the motor off. Don
Hey Don... Yeah, I know about that. That wasn't the reason it would not play. I point out that switch at one point in the video.
Ah, I now see you discovered the tape shut off.
btw, a common problem with many RtR's is the motor run cap.
It a non ecap, usually about 2mfd at 250vac. I've seen them used for ceiling fans. If it fails, the motor will run slow and over heat. just some fyi.
Good heads up, thanks!
Hey quick question, the manual says not to adjust the playback speed while it's playing, do you know exactly why that is? Like will bad things happen mechanically, or is it just rough on the tape?
I have it’s big brother tc765, it uses solenoids separate direct drive motors on the reels and closed loop dual capstan. Actually more simpler mechanics
i saw a video with these tapes in.apparently they were just an alternative to letters.you bought the first one with a player then just bought a tape when you needed one.they were specifically developed to send as audio messages and could be posted from anywhere there was a postal system.ithink it was the late fiftys..
You are probably well aware of this, but that pot and switch on the front that is labeled "SOS" is for sound on sound recording, I think. You should be able to use the machine as a tape delay if you can figure out how to use those controls. It will tell you in the owners manual if you can find one.
That actually sounds good, considering its age, and what all you've had to do to overhaul it.
Ugh, looks like a LOT of old British grease that over time hardens into a kind of sticky, gooey mess. The main issue I've found with pre-recorded mono tapes is that when I played them on a stereo tape recorder, there were issues of uneven balance in the channels that couldn't always mess with if you didn't have any technical aptitude or knowledge as to how to fix them. Yes, there can be some slight alignment issues depending on the tape and the machines, since there's no universal standard regarding the issues we come across while playing pre-recorded tapes.
Nice video, just subscribed.
Would you have a link to the manual for the TC 540 player. The Sony sight does not support it any longer. Thanks Martin H
I've cleaned and lubed my really nice 540 but the pinch roller doesn't come up without pulling it up and it doesn't spin nor does the capstan. The belt motor works fine and all other functions seem fine. Any ideas? Thanks in advanced.
Got it working! Just had to follow your advice about lubing the play armature. Also had to work the hell out of the pinch roller mechanism which resulted in having to resolder two wires to the head.
J B Hosier was a female musical missionary around in the early seventies, 19:00. if this is what youve found.
Hey Brad, I found this TC 540 at my mom's house after she passed away. I haven't seen it since I was a child. I watched this video and cleaned and greased all the spindles. However, when I put the reels and tried to play a tape it kept spinning way to fast. Sounded like the chipmunks on meth. I adjusted the speed knob to all of the settings but same result no matter where it was set. Any help with this would be great. If I hold my thumb on the feed reel and slow it down it plays perfectly. It seems that the motor is not slowing down with the adjustment to the speed knob. My reels are all 3 3/4. Thanks in advance.
Thank you so much.
The thing that I will say about level adjustments is you probably want to be careful. You probably want an alignment tape for the audio because I'm not sure that the recording you have is set at the correct levels.
Could you recommend anyone in the area to repair my TC-560D? I think i can handle the mechanical but I'm getting weak/inconsistent output from one channel.
Sir , by any chance do yiu have service manual for Sony TC 660 ? I am writing to u from India
Sorry, no.
@@TheGuitologist ok Sir
"Rubber Renue" from MG Chemicals works way better and leaves no residue...perfect for capstan rollers.
Need detailed working of TC 366. Possible?
Been watching reel to reel repair videos
Still don't trust my self trying lol
Hey there. I just acquired the same 1971 Sony TC-540. It plays wonderfully but I'm having some issues with recording. I cleaned the heads respectively before I even played a single reel. I suspect it has something to do with the record level volume knobs as when I turn them, it's nothing but pure static. Is there an accessible and easy way to clean these contacts or would I be better off replacing the parts? Any opinion or advice on the matter would be helpful as I'm a novice at this sort of thing. Thanks!
You'll need to remove the amp from the cabinet to access the volume controls for the record function from the rear. You'll then need to get some contact cleaner like the kind in the link below and spray it into the opening in the back covering of the control. Then work the controls a few times. This will clean them.
Contact Cleaner: amzn.to/2isCt9B
Very cool! Thanks!
No probs.
Hi Brad great job on the restore. I have a sony 630D and the pinch roller moves freely but does not come into contact with the capstand unless I give it a push, can you do a video on cleaning that section under the capstand
The Japanese and other countries in the orient have been collecting vintage electronics, so the supply of what is available here in the states is dwindling, Maybe you can save a few from the trash can. This reel to reel seems to have sparked a lot of interest from your viewers. Thankz
You could splice alot of those small tapes to gether and put them on 5" reels
Anybody near Marlton NJ capable of getting one of these babies up and running??? I have a TC-530 and 540. The 530 was partially restored, but buzzes and flutters a bit. The 540 is still in Mickey Mouse mode, but both are cosmetic beauties.
I have the TC-520 model and it is similar to this one and I have not been able to solve the issue with recording. It will not record.If anyone has any tips they will greatly appreciated.Thank you
Correction I have the TC-355 model.
I just picked one up yesterday, hopefully I won't need to do much of this, if any.
Hello! Thank you for this video! I have acquired a Sony TC 630 and the tapes that came with it sound 'scratchy/staticy'......May I ask if this is typically from bad tapes or the deck itself?....I have cleaned the heads with alcohol and even purchased a demagnetizer from eBay......still scratchy ....... Any guidance here would be so appreciated!! Thank you!! Bret
Sounds like an issue with the audio amplifier maybe. I wouldn't know without hearing the problem.
Not sure if you are familiar with this forum "tapeheads.net" if you have any questions about reel to reels they will help you. A lot of excellent techs there. Even though you are an excellent tech yourself who knows you might learn something new.Cheers
Great vid thanks :) - felt is maybe to stop panels vibrating together with the music?
I need some of those little reels brad...hook it up mon
Man, i've just loved your video !
My english is not so good so I don't understand what you say about France and this old tape you found on the street (I'm french). But this is cool !
I've just bought an old TC-540 and I will follow your advices to get it working.
By the way where do you live ? (far away as I can listen !)
Thanks for the comment! Glad you enjoyed the video. I live in Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
Looking for replacement belts for Sony TC 540.
Not sure on that. You might have to measure the lengths and widths you need and go for something generic.
How can I reach you for repairs needed?
Hi Guitologist Brad, Another great repair and some retro sound equipment, Techmoan on YT be jealous, a rather good channel you may be aware of. I'd like to see a series on building a single ended amp, for example a 5F1 Champ or 5C1. Nothing fancy, just the basics, volume, 8 ohm output to speaker. You could sell it when done. I'd like to wish you and yours a Happy Year End and All the Best in 2017. Be good, C.
I have so many repairs to do right now I'm overwhelmed with all of those. New scratch builds may come, but it'll be a while.
Excellent tutorial on this model I have the tc-520 and is similar to this one. I have not been able to figure out why it does not record..Still trying to figure it out.Cheers
Correction I have the TC-355 model.Cheers
I found superlube worked wonders on a bsr changer
i use lighter fluid to clean turntables it dissolves grease very quickly
Nice job, but that's a lot of work for that model reel (worth maybe $100) unless you plan on keeping it!
i use lighter fluid to dissolve old grease, it takes very little effort
the screws at the end of the board that is
those screws are bias adjustments
i have Sony TC-270 meter not working line mode
Yeah - Derek Prince - great preacher! (I know his voice)
Tenho um
Brad you were born about 40 years too late. If you were around in the 1940's through about the mid 1980's when everybody had these devices along with record players, TV's and stereos that worked on tube technology your company would have made you very wealthy!! LOL
Hahaha, as is, I'm relegated to working in my basement for peanuts. :D
it may need new capacitors
13:40 that looks more like tar than lubricant at this point
Lubricant is one area where vintage is certainly NOT better.
chitty chitty bang bang?
what a tiny tapes lol
I get self-conscious about the size of my tapes.
Sony"s are know for junk motor run caps will cause motor to run slow and run hot
I will keep that in mind if this one ever displays those symptoms. I have another one I'll be overhauling at some point, so I'll check those as well. Thanks!
How could anyone throw all of those away??? They should be placed in some sort of bible musuem or something. Thats some significant history of Christianity. Are they dated?