Wow....very happy to find this wealth of information. I've been revisiting my youth in which vintage audio played an imprortant part. So far, have relocated my G-9000 and the monster bug has bitten me. Dusted off my old R2R tapes and found a nice RT-909 complete with belt goo and missing capstan bearings. With great info from these postings, I've managed to get it all working and sounding fine. Thanks!