Pioneer RT-1011L

[rtp_burnsville]

Hi Guys,

Thanks to a longtime friend yet another RTR followed me home this past weekend. This one has spent the past 30 years or so in a church and would bet it hasn't been used more than a dozen times. It needs some stickers removed but otherwise is in great shape. I fired it up and it works perfectly.....

Robert

 

[Elite-ist]

Robert: Wow, what a gift! These RT-10 series machines run almost forever. What's up with the rest of your R2R decks? Is the RT-701 running OK? Thank you for the excellent 7" open reel recording you gifted me several months ago. Many tunes are absolutely new to me and a nice change from the music I have been accustomed to.

Nando.

 

[rtp_burnsville]

Hi Nando,

Glad to know that you found some of the tape enjoyable. If things every slow a bit I will see if I can find something else you might like.

As for the RTR's....

The 701 is still working well and is my favorite for playing 7 inch reels. I love the styling of that deck and the meters of course.

The 909 has been a problem child. I replaced both capstans as they were goo which when everywhere. Someone powered the deck up with the goo and burnt the H bridge transistors. I replaced those and did a complete lub and belt job at the same time. Then the microswitch on the tape sensors went bad so fixed those. Finally I tought it was getting close, but not yet. I could not get enough torque to spin the 10 inch reels even with the pots at maximum. After much reading I thought the motor run capacitors were bad so I pulled them last night but they test good here at work so am a bit lost for the moment. I think I am going to order some new caps thinking that the testers may not pick up a leaking (bad) part when used at the high voltage these work under. It's a nice deck so would like to get it going after all of this.

The Teac A-7300 works Ok. It has some miles on it so not sure if it's really worth spending much time or $'s on. It could use new capstan rubber (it has some wow and flutter at times) and a complete going through.

The RT-1020H I sold after fixing a bunch of electrical issues. It was well worn so not really worth the effort to invest anymore time in. The guy that bought it understood the condition but wanted it anyway. I broke about even on $'s so let it go.

Ha, the saga of cassette decks is similar but have a couple more problem children..... The Teac 112B is working well and is my favorite. The Nak decks work fine, just not all that crazy about them. I gave away the JVC direct drive and parted out the HK that I hated and had electrical issues. The Yamaha I build from parts bought from Larry worked fine until a few weeks ago when it decided it wants to eat tapes of all denominations, what's up with that??? The Pioneer 9090 I bought from Lee has some electrical problems and FFand REW transport issues. Maybe I'll get to that one this winter as belts and control cleaning did not get things working.

Robert

 

[laatsch55]

Sorry to hear about the 9090 Robert, thought it was in better shape than that. Probably the complete reference 909 thread is at AK by Pustilnikar. It may be a "sticky" in the Pioneer or Tape section.

 

[laatsch55]

On the 9090, sounds like the dreaded 9191 clutch problem. Mark the Fixer wrote the definitive 9191 clutch thread also on AK. He had a complete workaround for it and has worked just wonderful. That one is in the Pioneer section.

 

[Elite-ist]

Thanks for the update, Robert. I would love to do an open-reel mix tape for you. I haven't used my R2R decks in some time for recording as most of my mix tapes have been in the form of cassettes. So, this would give me a good reason to use one of the Pioneers. I am thinking of using the RT-909 this time.

I sold my Pioneer RT-1020L on consignment at Innovative Audio for a good price. It's unfortunate these series of Pioneer R2Rs don't command the price of the newer machines. I used all the proceeds of my recent stereo consignment sales to buy and have a Pioneer SX-1980 receiver restored at Innovative Audio. I am still in awe of this receiver!

Nando.

 

[laatsch55]

As well you should be....

 

[rtp_burnsville]

Nando, That sounds like a nice receiver! It should fit well in your collection of Pioneer items. Ha, exchanging one toy for another, been there, done that!

Lee, Thanks for the articles, I'll check them out. One never knows with vintage stuff what is under the cover until you dig into it.

Robert