Resurrecting my Akai MG1212

[jrfrond]

Amen to testing with a blank.


I have seen only one of those old 388 machines, I about fainted when I first saw it. I had no idea such a behemoth was even made. "Wow! Lookit this thing!"

They're a real pain to work on. Yeah, it's pretty wild to think that they got that all into one box! And now, the cheapest digital studios can blow them away. Sure, it was analog, but the 1/4"-8 track format was OK at best. You couldn't really slam the tape with level to saturate it for punchy sounds because of crosstalk due to the narrow track width. But Teac/Tascam was famous for odd tape-track formats.

[Neal]

I appreciate all the responses and advice... thanks, guys!
At this point, I think I'll go ahead and see if I can find a service manual for it if possible. My 3 kids have all decided they want to be in bands (the 15-year old has already started), and this thing would be a great board for them to learn on. Like I said, even if I can't get the tape transport to behave itself, it'd still make a great mixboard for the practice room.
Also, it'd be a great learning experience for me to dig into this thing a little deeper.
Jrfrond, can you recommend a source for a service manual, or should I just get one on-line?
Thanks again, guys!
Neal

[jay58]

I'm on my second mg1212 and haven't ever had a problem with either machine other than the door opening with a slight thud while putting a tape in or removing it.
I think these are fantastic machines. If you can aquire one that wasn't used in a commercial setting they will run quite trouble in my opinion. I spoke to Akai a few years back and they told me the will probably never wear out.
My sounds great and and rivals the sound of a 1" 8 track according ti wikipedia, and agree they sound awesome. If you prefer analog as i do these are great being an all in one unit. They also look beautiful.
I wouldn't listen to the guy behind the curtain who of course knows everything. Probably hasn't even had his hands on one. Just my opinion but i'm keeping mine. i love it.

[km6xz]

Of course if you are lucky enough to have one that is in good condition, 10 years after its intended service life, keep it. But be prepared for it to suddenly be irreparable due to lack of parts. They were not that well supported when they were selling well, so any new stock parts are out of the question.
We used to work on a lot of them but never warmed up to them or the company. They did work OK considering the tape format but used so many non-standard parts in wear locations that there were never any 2nd sources for anything.
The key to keeping old electro-mechanical gear working is grabbing every old junker you come across as a possible parts source. Also, become an expert on it, with the proper test instruments, calibration tapes and torque gauges. Old pro gear had extended life not only by design but also a cottage industry of support products such as pucks and rebuilt capstan motors. There are a lot of 1950s Ampex's still in operation due to this. My favorite was always the Studer brand but also liked the ATR series Ampex for design and performance. It would be a shame to junk an A800 Studer due to lack of tape and parts but that is happening. The analog gear was intended to last decades and did because they were expensive, as much as a house of the time. When digital came along, the speed of standards obsolescence increased greatly making studio gear a losing proposition where they seldom paid for themselves before they were not viable. The DASH format machines were expensive($125,000) and had a service life due to parts unavailability of only about 5 years. Buying two or three of those put a lot of mid-sized studios out of business when they became boat-anchors because critical maintenance parts were no longer sold by Sony. That whole era of pro digital gear will be long forgotten because few will have seen them working so when people think of vintage gear. A 50 year old analog RtoR is worth a lot more than a 20 year old high digital item because people can keep them going. A 1970s 2 track ATR-102 will bring 10 times in selling price than a 24 track digital RtoR deck that cost 100 times as much when new.

So keep your Akai running and enjoy it but do not expect to have it functional forever, keep a backup plan for any archive of valued tape you might have. It would be a shame to lose both the deck and the value of the content of those tapes by the next failure.

[olddawg]

My guess would be a slipping idler wheel or a bad felt clutch. Normally you would check the tape tension during playback and see if it is to a certain spec. If the clutch or idler is slipping you will have insufficient tape tension thus the tape spill. If the clutch is frozen you will stretch tapes. This is basically true for all tape transports. If everything else works, it may be a simple problem to an experienced eye. You can usually rebuild a felt clutch if the part is no longer available. If you can do it yourself and get it opereational, you could do your own transfers.

[jerry82]

Hello,
I resently aquired an akai mg1212 and it seems to power up just fine but i really dont know much about these machines. i was wondering if anyone could help me out. my first question is, can this akai be used as a pa without any other source of power? i was also wondering if anyone knows how to hook it up in order to record guitar , bass ,drums, vox, ect.maybe an owners manual would come in handy if anyone could let me know where to get one. any help would be greatly apreciated.

Thanks.....

[Johnnyv]

Hey Neal, The mechanical levers that control the brake on the take-up reel may be frozen. Try going fast forward the rewind a couple of times to kind of unstick the "levers" Mecha-block (5 screws) must come out to apply necessary lubrication as well.
I have also done a memory battery upgrade on my 1212 which has allowed me to change the battery by taking off the 4 screws on the underneath panel that has the slits in it. The battery and red/black wires are secured to the said panel with wire ties. Best of luck, John