Pioneer CT-F950 restoration: should I or should I not?

DJDDay

DJDDay

Active Member
Hey Pioneer gang! So... I've got this mint (aesthetically speaking) CT-F950 that I picked up off of FB Marketplace for $300 USD earlier this year. I knew it needed some work - the belts, pinch rollers, idler wheels - etc - at the least, but also knew the caps and transistors were original. Motors thankfully seems solid - good torque and no dead spots that I can tell.

Brought it to my local vintage audio tech (reputable shop - they refurbed my RT-707 earlier this year for an excellent price), and they've told me that the heads need to be re-lapped, otherwise they can only get about 10 Khz out of them at the upper end. But even without a re-lap, I'm looking at $850 USD for a "total restoration" (all caps/transistors replaced as well as the usual stuff like belts and tires), or $575 for "functional" (meaning, no caps replaced but just the belts and tires). I have no intention of re-lapping as that would cost about $400-$450 additional, and the head block is missing the flat pressure bar that goes between the PB and Record head anyway. But do you think it would be worth it doing a "functional" restore even though it'll only hit 10 Khz in the high end of the spectrum? That would make my "all-in" at about $875. I feel like doing the "total restoration" at an "all-in" of $1150 would be a bit high for a CT-F950 that will only hit 10 Khz and is missing the flat pressure bar between the PB/record heads. Thoughts?

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So either way you would be paying a lot of money for a poorly performing machine. And with heads as bad as I understand them to be, it could become useless any moment The machine does look great. But to me this looks like a project that is only viable if you hobby-restore it yourself. And find some replacement heads somewhere first.
 
Well, I think I'm going to eat the $75 bench fee for having the shop look at it and send it to a tech in Florida. Looks like he's willing to do a full restoration at significantly less cost than what my local shop wanted to charge for just a "functional" fix. And yeah, my heads won't be re-lapped and the deck will only do 10 Khz at the high end, but I can't hear above that anyway so to my ears it'll be just fine:


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Often you get what you pay for. We shall see. Usually the difference between a good tech and bad one is the good tech will spend considerable amount of time repairing and replacing things that have not yet failed but he knows will fail in the not too distant future. A bad tech will just fix the things that are obviously broken and not worry about long-term reliability or he will skip over things that he thinks you won't notice. Bottom line: a quick/cheap repair will usually work at first but have more problems only a few months down the line. An expensive repair done by a tech who has repaired a few thousand tape decks will usually run fine for 10 years. Like I said, time will tell. Maybe this "low-ball" estimate will work out fine for you.
 
tapetech said:
Often you get what you pay for. We shall see. Usually the difference between a good tech and bad one is the good tech will spend considerable amount of time repairing and replacing things that have not yet failed but he knows will fail in the not too distant future. A bad tech will just fix the things that are obviously broken and not worry about long-term reliability or he will skip over things that he thinks you won't notice. Bottom line: a quick/cheap repair will usually work at first but have more problems only a few months down the line. An expensive repair done by a tech who has repaired a few thousand tape decks will usually run fine for 10 years. Like I said, time will tell. Maybe this "low-ball" estimate will work out fine for you.
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That’s fair. If the heads weren’t in such shape, I’d absolutely keep it at the local shop for a full restore. I’m going to try the cheap route for now. If anything I’ll flip it and get my money spent back.
 
i had a skirmish with one of those maybe 20 years ago when I was still in the discovery phase of vintage audio. I was totally in love with the aesthetics of it, the way it looked on my shelf, etc. ....it never worked right. got it for $75, and proceeded to pour gobs of $$$ into with various 'techs', some of whom are respectible members here on AK. After I'd gotten to the ground well north of $1k I gave up, shipped it to somebody who wanted the carcass and went on with my life
 
shrinkboy said:
i had a skirmish with one of those maybe 20 years ago when I was still in the discovery phase of vintage audio. I was totally in love with the aesthetics of it, the way it looked on my shelf, etc. ....it never worked right. got it for $75, and proceeded to pour gobs of $$$ into with various 'techs', some of whom are respectible members here on AK. After I'd gotten to the ground well north of $1k I gave up, shipped it to somebody who wanted the carcass and went on with my life
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Oof.. that sounds horrible. Hopefully mine wont prove that trying. I’m already in $300 + $75 bench fee. If I had dropped almost $1000 on repairs like you and it still didn’t work, I’d be crushed.
 
DJDDay said:
Hey Pioneer gang! So... I've got this mint (aesthetically speaking) CT-F950 that I picked up off of FB Marketplace for $300 USD earlier this year. I knew it needed some work - the belts, pinch rollers, idler wheels - etc - at the least, but also knew the caps and transistors were original. Motors thankfully seems solid - good torque and no dead spots that I can tell.

Brought it to my local vintage audio tech (reputable shop - they refurbed my RT-707 earlier this year for an excellent price), and they've told me that the heads need to be re-lapped, otherwise they can only get about 10 Khz out of them at the upper end. But even without a re-lap, I'm looking at $850 USD for a "total restoration" (all caps/transistors replaced as well as the usual stuff like belts and tires), or $575 for "functional" (meaning, no caps replaced but just the belts and tires). I have no intention of re-lapping as that would cost about $400-$450 additional, and the head block is missing the flat pressure bar that goes between the PB and Record head anyway. But do you think it would be worth it doing a "functional" restore even though it'll only hit 10 Khz in the high end of the spectrum? That would make my "all-in" at about $875. I feel like doing the "total restoration" at an "all-in" of $1150 would be a bit high for a CT-F950 that will only hit 10 Khz and is missing the flat pressure bar between the PB/record heads. Thoughts?

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These have the traditional Pioneer clutch problem as many of the good Pioneer decks do, don't they?

As beautiful as vintage Pioneer decks are, beware -- I'm not certain if there's anyone fixing them any more. Anyone else know if someone else has taken up the clutch rebuilding cause?
 
titanstats said:
These have the traditional Pioneer clutch problem as many of the good Pioneer decks do, don't they?

As beautiful as vintage Pioneer decks are, beware -- I'm not certain if there's anyone fixing them any more. Anyone else know if someone else has taken up the clutch rebuilding cause?
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Zebulon1 was passed on the torch of knowledge from Mark if I remember correctly. I don't require the service but it's nice to know that someone out there can do it.:)
 
titanstats said:
These have the traditional Pioneer clutch problem as many of the good Pioneer decks do, don't they?
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Yeah no clue if my CT-F950 has a bad clutch or not. I'm sending it to a tech in Florida for a rebuild so we'll see if that takes care of things....

ConchBoy66 said:
Zebulon1 was passed on the torch of knowledge from Mark if I remember correctly. I don't require the service but it's nice to know that someone out there can do it.:)
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That was... 15 years ago??! Lol... is @zebulon1 still doing this service? If so, are they out of the US? Europe? Elsewhere?
 
Marks original post started 15 years ago, but that notice of the changeover is quite recent within the last year or so. I believe zeb is in Nevada.
 
DJDDay said:
Yeah no clue if my CT-F950 has a bad clutch or not. I'm sending it to a tech in Florida for a rebuild so we'll see if that takes care of things....



That was... 15 years ago??! Lol... is @zebulon1 still doing this service? If so, are they out of the US? Europe? Elsewhere?
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Nobody has been rebuilding these since Mark that I'm aware of; if someone is attempting it again it's recent.

I stopped buying these units some years ago due to the inevitability of clutch failure and the very (IMO) difficult chore of rebuilding the clutch mech. If I find someone doing it for certain then I'll jump into the lineup and send in the clutch from my last CT-F100.
 
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Gosh guys, just read Marks original post all the way through or skip to the end. You will see that zebulon1 is doing the clutches. I don’t have a dog in this race, just trying to help.

It may be though that the 950 doesn’t have the same clutch problem as the other models because the post does not mention the 950 specifically. Its says 8282-9191-1000 and the rxa-581.
 
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titanstats said:
Nobody has been rebuilding these since Mark that I'm aware of; if someone is attempting it again it's recent.
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Errr - not sure if that's entirely accurate. There's 2 different techs that are 30 minutes from me that I know of who will happily rebuild these - they just wanted more than I was willing to spend (hence why I am sending it out of state).

ConchBoy66 said:
Gosh guys, just read Marks original post all the way through or skip to the end. You will see that zebulon1 is doing the clutches. I don’t have a dog in this race, just trying to help.
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And I totally appreciate it! Would be helpful if you would post an actual link to the thread, though. Your post was just a screen grab - not a thread link.
 
.. Just an honest observation.

.. the talent actively posting here can support your needs.

I understand not everybody can take the time to perform their own restorations, so please take freely given advice with a smile :)
Everybody wins :)
 
ConchBoy66 said:
Thread 'FF/REW fix ctf-8282,9191,1000 RXA-581, NOT DIY'
https://audiokarma.org/forums/index...ix-ctf-8282-9191-1000-rxa-581-not-diy.292583/
I’m not sure this even applies to your machine, I just meant to answer the question as to whether or not anyone is still repairing the clutches. Hopefully you won’t require this service.
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Thanks. Looks like this is for the notorious clutch on the ctf-8282, ct-f9191 and ct-f1000. The CT-F950, FT-F1250, etc - uses a different approach. Thanks though!
 
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