Posted by hurdy_gurdyman [ 4.229.162.31 ] on December 18, 2004 at 17:48:37:
I got my replacement Tascam 133 last week. It's been an interesting experience. First, upon picking up the cardboard shipping box, I had a bad feeling. The deck inside would slide around as I tipped the box. When I opened the box, I found those plastic baggie-like air cusions surrounding the tape deck. All but one were deflated. This was one of the worst packing jobs I've ever seen. Next, after plugging it in, I discovered the tape well door would only open a small crack. I had to pry it open. It wouldn't play a tape at all. The capstion and the take up spool wouldn't move. I took the case off the unit and found the drive belt had come off. After about 15 minutes and many choice words, I got the belt back on. The take up spool still wouldn't work. After a careful examination, I discovered a big dent in the faceplate below the tape well where it obviously had been dropped. Good to see UPS hasn't lost their gentel touch. I had to think on this a bit. I could put in a claim to UPS, but chances are they'd claim it was the sellers fault because of bad packing. I could try to get the seller to give my money back, but this can be a real experience in itself, as those of you who have bought off epay may have discovered. So, what I finally did was to scavage my old deck and replaced the faceplate, replace the drive belt (which was wore out anyway), replaced the capstain/flywheel (which was bent), replaced the pinch rollar (at a later time as it, too, proved wore out). All in all, I have about two days of nerve-racking, eye straning work into this. All seems to work right now. I probably should have the head alignment checked out, but not sure if I will. It sounds fine on the tapes it records, and I'm only using to make working tapes of my band and solo work, so tapes will only be played back in the same machine (I don't have any other three channel decks to play them on).
What an experience!
Tired Dave 
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