New to me Akai GX4000D

[SpruceMoose]

Well, I picked up a reel-to-reel on Friday from Craigslist. First one I’ve had since about 1972! It’s a mint condition Akai GX4000D. It came with 36 tapes and a couple of empty takeup reels. One of the tapes was wound on a plastic Akai reel, so that’s been swapped out to be the takeup reel that I will keep on the machine. A nice metal reel would be nice, but boy are they expensive!

Anyway, I’m slowly going through the tapes as I do stuff around the house. Lots of big band. Some jazz. Some classical. Some easy listening from my parents era.

I’ll be hooking up my dbx nr box and I’ll try some recording when I get a chance. Also gotta clean and demag it.

So far so good. It sounds wonderful!

 

[sixthday]

Great ! 4000D is one of the best looking little R2R.

Metal reel are nice but not that hard to find. I've found 4 7" metal reel over 2 years locally. All less than $1 a piece

 

[SpruceMoose]

That’s great to hear. Maybe I’ll end up with one eventually. I guess I gotta start hitting yard sales and thrift stores.

 

[pdm4606]

The local rehab place had one under a bunch of junk one time when I paid a visit. I asked how much and the girl said it was due for the dumpster soon. I bid $5 and they took it. Getting it home was fine. It was setup for 220 V AC. A simple switch change and it was ready to fly but first.......Tear down and re lube many points along with cleaning belts and pulleys. After around a week of tweeking all is well. Really sounds nice. I am now using it at 15" ips and it is great.

 

[dhnash]

I am now using it at 15" ips and it is great.

How are you doing this? According to the user/instruction manual, the GX-4000D operates at either 3.75 or 7.5 ips.

 

[SpruceMoose]

That’s what I was wondering. Either a different model or a custom capstan sleeve... would eq/bias change from the 7-1/2ips settings?

 

[pdm4606]

A new capstan sleeve in proportion to the size now on the capstan. I checked my new 15 inch/second capstan roller and it is .6395 inches diameter. I had a machinist friend make one from brass(it has to be non-magnetic) and it worked. I checked the speed according to tape time. Don't get too excited. The tape whizzed by very fast giving you half of what you normally get. I wish it had 15" reels. But the sound was really good. I have several Akai capstan sleeves and pinch rollers for different machines.
Another change is the capstan pinch( the rubber tire thingy) roller has to be reduced. The normal pinch roller is too large for the new sleeve. I didn't change the bias as the sound was too good.
Of course this was done as an experiment and as far as I am concerned it worked surprisingly well.

 

[JH Magnecord]

There was a "PRO 4000D" (mainly sold in Europe and Japan) which did use 15 and 7 1/2 and, quite possibly(?), is the most compact (high speed) 2-track stereo rtr ever made.