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My latest, a Studer B67

Tinman

Tinman

Super Member
OK, so I recently acquired a Studer B67 to add to my little collection. It was apparently sold for $850 running, but returned broken for a refund. I then got it as-is for $250. Well worth it just for the very good butterfly heads it has.

And so it began.... No power. OK, one connector came off the power switch. Fixed. It powered up but did absolutely NOTHING. Great....

No capstan, no nothing. Capstan board: One burnt resistor. Fixed.

Main logic board: 2 IC's MANGLED and plugged in backwards. 4 blown diodes and 2 broken off resistors. Fixed. I did have to solder on a few leads to the IC's. I have them, but I rather save the originals if I can. They are unobtainable, after all.

Machine blows F1. Hmm.... reads almost short. After a LOT of troubleshooting I discovered that someone ALSO swapped a few of the transformer wires around on the terminal blocks. Fixed. Still dead.

Upon even closer inspection I find that the same someone ALSO swapped at random all the pretty wires on the 3 motor control boards. Huh.... replace the Rifa caps while at it.... Fixed.

Oh... what's this? One IC on the counter board, backwards and one pin off.
Fixed.

FINALLY the deck springs to life. Everything works. I was absolutely blown away at the sheer butchery that was executed on this machine. Someone either bought it with the sole intent of fixing HIS deck and returning a junk pile to the seller, or someone was just plain lying. I don't know, don't care.

I beat the Pro from Dover once again. This one has to be the most interesting job of killing something I have EVER seen.

Regardless, the B67 is all better, and I even saved the processor IC. It's making sweet music again. Pictures to follow later. Here's a google pic of one for those that have never seen a B67.

Man, that was fun!

How a tech spends his weekends. :D

Marc
 

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Very cool! Feels good to bring it back to life after the all the abuse. Is it so hard to put a chip in with pin1 in the right spot??

:music:
 
Sheesh! Sounds like someone pulled the old switcharoo on that one - no way something like that ever ran! Nice save, what a beautiful machine that one is. I couldn't think of a more rewarding way to spend a weekend!
 
wow. just wow.

very nice!, tinman. makes me wish i was 20 or 30 years younger and back in school to learn the basics of how to do tech work like that.
 
jayk said:
wow. just wow.

very nice!, tinman. makes me wish i was 20 or 30 years younger and back in school to learn the basics of how to do tech work like that.
Click to expand...

Never went to school for that. It came naturally for me. I guess I'm lucky that way, or cursed. It was only MUCH later that I became a certified Master Tech.

Hey, it's never too late to learn. This isn't so much theory as it is the ability to observe what's going on.

Marc
 
audiojones said:
Sheesh! Sounds like someone pulled the old switcharoo on that one - no way something like that ever ran! Nice save, what a beautiful machine that one is. I couldn't think of a more rewarding way to spend a weekend!
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Yeah.... and ONLY 8 cups of coffee!! :beer:
 
Fasterdamnit said:
Very cool! Feels good to bring it back to life after the all the abuse. Is it so hard to put a chip in with pin1 in the right spot??

:music:
Click to expand...

Not ONLY pin one, but busted a few pins off, etc. Sheesch.... total butchery.


The BEST part is putting a reel on it and pressing PLAY the first time. :music:

That's really why I do it. I just absolutely LOVE it. :tresbon:

Marc
 
dread31 said:
Very nice! So, how's she sound?
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Pretty damn good, actually! This deck has totally separate adjustments for EACH speed. Sweet! :thmbsp:

Now that I have it fully working however, I'll tear it down completely to clean, lube and re-cap everything. First rule.... never do everything at once. That way, if something goes wrong you can find it.

Marc
 
Tinman said:
Not ONLY pin one, but busted a few pins off, etc. Sheesch.... total butchery.


The BEST part is putting a reel on it and pressing PLAY the first time. :music:

That's really why I do it. I just absolutely LOVE it. :tresbon:

Marc
Click to expand...

I hear you. Luckily my Teac A4300 just needed cleaning and lube to run properly. Sounds like someone was just jamming it back together in a hurry to get rid of it. It has been awhile since I had to troubleshoot to component level. Felt great when the new DAC board in my old JVD CD player actually started producing music that was much smoother than the original. Next step- dig out the O-scope and look for a good sig-gen! I want to do a complete alignment on the Teac.

Tech-on my friend! :thmbsp:
 
Awesome looking machine. Gonna look great with a nice detail, wax, buff and polish along with the usual fluid changes. Someone is going to be needing more tape.
 
That is a really cool looking machine, kudos for bringing back to life, I wish I had such skills also.
 
Nice unit. I certainly wouldn't mind having one of those in my collection. Although those butterfly heads are very EXPENSIVE to replace!
 
That's quite a litany of self-inflicted errors on the part of the previous tech. You should be thankful they actually let it escape so it could be saved, a more rational person would have buried it somewhere to prevent the evidence of their crimes coming out.

One can only hope that the incident scarred them permanently and discouraged them from attempting any further butchery of fine electronics, and that a career in flipping burgers beckons instead :yes: :D

John
 
John, I doubt that was a tech. I really think someone used it for parts to fix another deck by means of swapping, and then just threw this one back together to return to the seller without bothering to put anything where it belongs.

But alas... It's mine now, working, and I enjoy it. :D

Marc
 
goldear said:
Hey Tinman: How well does the A700 measure-up to the B67?. They look very similar.
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They are built on the same mechanism. The audio electronics are totally different, though. The A700 came in both 1/4 track and 1/2 track. (I have both) The B67 uses a card cage for the audio cards and is FAR more adjustable. The B67 also has a much beefier power supply than the A700. No surprise there, it was made for studio use. The transports and tape handling are basically identical. These decks are very gentle on tape. In fact, these 2 and the A810 are all I ever use to play questionable tapes on. They use all rolling guides.

I'd say for half track, the B67 is better than the A700. The A700 has some pretty poor (by today's standards) op-amps in it. Though they CAN be replaced with modern ones with a little work.

I think the B67 is a better deck in many ways, though the A700 is no slouch for a "prosumer" deck. The B67 is a lot easier to work on, as well.

But I love them both. :thmbsp:
 
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Do you have any opinions on how the C-270 compares to the B67? I always thought that it was odd that these units lacked the front tension-arms when they employed the rear ones. I've never understood why revox designed the C-270 that way.
 
Hehe.... well, the C270 is a total cost cutting machine. Built to a price point again, but they still pulled it off pretty damn good. I wouldn't kick one to the curb.

But it is NOT built to be as modular or service friendly as the old ones. It's a little like the Tascam of the Revox world.

The C270 is a prosumer deck.

I'll take one to add to my collection, though.

Marc
 
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