I think I had a couple produced by Maxell if I remember correctly. You can physically see the difference.
This Marantz manual is on point and full of interesting bits and bobs. Number 2 covers tape type;
I recommend any cassette head to download it and take a read. It’s enriching.
Thanks for looking out for me anyway and thank you to @darenager for his introspective.
Well, I for one certainly had an eventful cassette based weekend. More thrills and spills than that quality game show 80’s heads know and love called The Running Man!
I set my Marantz up and headed out for a quick look around a second hand store for cassette stuff but I ended up looking at cassette players in one of the big electronic stores out here. I found some great things…
Plenty of cassettes. Various lengths, type 1 normal position only
Then I came to an aisle that had one side dedicated to cassette…
After picking the red and black boom box and a portable cassette I left.
I was enjoying my bike ride home so much that I decided to stay straddled and went to a Hard-Off. I found these…
I arrived back home and went to my gear. Fired up the Marantz and to my utter dismay one of the heads wasn’t working. Done a bit in my time to guesstimate that it was a broken belt. So I opened it up…
I was so upset but without further ado, I headed back out. There is a store around the corner from me called Jupiter Audio and it is like a museum. I’ve been there a couple of times. Once to buy speaker cable, which when I was ordering got served a lovely cup of coffee and a biscuit, and another time I got shown around with my music making friend.
If anybody can help me I am sure they can.
I rocked up and used as much Japanese as I could. Upon finishing my sentence the guy looked at me for a while and replied with “Perhaps…” signifying he has some ruddy good English. Nobody says a word like that normally.
The good gent said he’d see what he could do. I left my deets and a couple of hours later I got a call saying that he found me a belt!
It’ll take two weeks for it to arrive! Here’s the shop…
A very eventful day!
Damn that belt. I can imagine your posture upon that tragic event. 
By the way, if you’re near Ochanomizu there’s a dusty old shop of the Disc Union variety, “Audio Union”, for old HIFI squeezed in between some guitar shops on the main drag. I saw lots of repair trinkets there so it may be worth a phone call if you can find it with my odd description 
And which book off is that? Those metal tapes are the cheapest I’ve ever seen! I’m returning in May for another epic mountain trek, so definitely gonna grab anything I see in the type IV category.
Uh?
Hahahaha hahahaha you joker!
Reminds me of a trick question I heard at the weekend @Mistercharlie
“What is long, hard, and has ‘cum’ in it?”
Thanks a bunch @JamesM!
Yes, I let out a thunderous roar like a lion with a thorn in its paw.
It sounds great and definitely worth checking out. It’s a little hard for me to get to though. Not sure how much life the other belt has. Time is an issue as work Saturdays.
Let me know when you are about via PM. Def up for a chat of the drooling type for gear anytime!
PS. If anybody wants any tapes that I find then just PM me 
Yes, good morning my fellow tape heads!
Been up a couple of hours and I’m at the start of my 10 day Golden Week holiday! Kaboom!
I’ll be doing music… a lot. And I came up with an idea.
Cassettes are in abundance out here and I thought wouldn’t it be cool to add samples instead of sending blank shrink wrapped cassettes (if that were to happen). I was wondering if anybody would be interested in cassettes with some mysterious samples on? No two tapes would be the same, I’m pretty weird, and I could run the samples dry / wet ran through my gear… and I’ve got an abundance of top notch gear at that.
What do you guys think?
Finally tested it the Tascam 02 this morning. Apart from a really scratchy headphone pot (ouch!), It seemed to record (input levels showing nicely on the LEDs). However, when I rewound and tried to listen, I was met with silence. My next step is to consult the manual, but I’m otherwise stumped. Is it possible for the output stage to be malfunctioning? Or is the more likely cause something in the record head? Does anyone have a good method for testing the basic functions of a 4-track? I’m bummed since this unit is in otherwise good condition. I’m not sure I’ll have time to fully troubleshoot this item and it will just sit in the corner, collecting dust.
I’d be interested for sure,
Count me in!
Update: I decided to test the tape out on my Marantz and it worked! So, I suppose that narrows down my troubleshooting to something with playback or the output circuits on the Tascam. I might have to inquire whether the repair shop I found (Superscope) works on those as well. Maybe I can send them both in for a little tune up.
That would be pretty dope man. I’d be interested for sure. Were you thinking standard playback speed or double speed like on a four track?
Great! Glad to have you on board!
Thanks! I think normal playback speed is the way to go. That way the samples are there and ready to go!
How about the good old “pass the camera” project? But,
Record a few samples on a tape, send it to someone who adds some of their samples, who sends it to another… and so on.
The last person makes a copy of the tape, and sends the original tape to the first person to copy, and sends it on, etc etc…
I like that, if I have tape deck by then I’ll contribute
In.
There’s only 5 hours left, but shopgoodwill has a Nakamichi Dragon on auction right now. One of the ultimate cassette deck thrift finds.
I buy these off eBay … this model is well sturdy has a built in speaker and its loud (((())))! good for camping trips.IMG_6173|403x500
I have a couple of other versions that only record in mono but sound so much better…
if my tracks sound good on them … they’re belters!
Great idea!
I’m all for any type of obscurity or different ways of doing stuff, I think it is wonderful for originality!
Once the last person receives and records the tape we could have it available for download. Every contributor makes a track using only those samples. It would be amazing to hear everybody’s unique offerings!
