In a message dated 10/22/2005 5:41:07 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, andy.thompson@... writes:
Markus/all
> In some machines the rollers need to be tightened a bit harder to
compensate
> for the slightly reduced drive of the black matte tapes, but the machines
> that have this problem (very hard and non-gripping rollers due to aged
> rubber) need new rollers anyway. THAT is the big improvement, the marginal
> difference between the tapes is totally negligeable compared to the vast
> improvement with new rollers in these machines.
When Änglagård used #1145 in Belgium in summer '03, tapes were switched
around between machines. Towards the end of the set, after much heat, smoke
etc., a set of Markus' tapes installed in my machine slipped horrendously,
to the amusement of all and sundry, and my utter horror. I've since decided
the reason was my fairly knackered old rollers - a few have now been
replaced, and the whole lot have been ground my Martin/John to a tyre shape,
which really does work as well as they say. I've used it at four gigs this
year, with its standard late '70s tapeset, and have had no problems
whatsoever. Markus is quite right about pinch rollers - replace or grind, I
say.
Andy T.
I agree. I have had no trouble with MA tapes when the rollers were in proper shape. Markus has nice replacement rollers that I retrofit to my Tron and they are great. They are slightly larger in diameter that the original rollers and have quite a nice "bite" to them. I think they are about five bucks each, but you must fit them into your old key springs. If you don't want to d this yourself, you can send your key springs to Markus and he will install them for you, or you can send them to me and I will.
Frank