The good old Sony Betamax

[Bob Mohler]

Customer brought in Sony Betamax, Model: SL-300. Cassette transfer
basket has the guide pins broken and other missing or broken parts.
Does anyone have a loading basket they would sacrifice to an old hand
who works on these outmoded oldies? If necessary, would consider
buying whole unit if price were reasonable. Customer has dozens of
old John Wayne movies and wanted to help him out. "Good ole John, the
old patriotic one", deserves to be heard...any leads would help me out
more than you know. Thanks for your time.
Bob Mohler
Odessa, TX.

 

[gothika]

Good ole John, the poseur.

 

[lcoe]

It's probably a SuperBetamax.

Elaborate, please.

Do you mean the cassette loader carriage or the guideposts and advance arms?

In the case of the loader, sometimes there is a gear inside that mechanism
which can break, usually because someone loads the cassette too hard. The
problem is that it could be any one of the gears in the loader mecha that may
be bad. People need to learn to load tapes by gently pushing in until the
machine takes it in by itself. It doesn't need help in taking the tape in
after triggering the loader.

ditto for Dat drives by Archive, at least the early ones, often killed by
the impatient operator/backup dude/dudess. --Loren

 

[LASERandDVDfan]

ditto for Dat drives by Archive, at least the early ones, often killed by

the impatient operator/backup dude/dudess. --Loren

Pretty much any deck that has a motorized front loading mechanism, even CD
players. I remember the time when I was in high school and my so-called A/V
production teacher was trying to load a tape into a $1000+ Panasonic AG-1980
S-VHS editing deck. She kept on loading the tape too hard, and each time the
VCR would jam and reject the cassette. I had to tell her to not load the tape
so hard. She just looked at me like she was annoyed, but how else was I
supposed to remind her that what she was doing was wrecking a $1000+ deck that
didn't belong to her? - Reinhart

 

[t.hoehler]

Pretty much any deck that has a motorized front loading mechanism, even CD

players. I remember the time when I was in high school and my so-called A/V
production teacher was trying to load a tape into a $1000+ Panasonic AG-1980
S-VHS editing deck. She kept on loading the tape too hard, and each time the
VCR would jam and reject the cassette. I had to tell her to not load the tape
so hard. She just looked at me like she was annoyed, but how else was I
supposed to remind her that what she was doing was wrecking a $1000+ deck that
didn't belong to her? - Reinhart

It's a shame some people disrespect equipment, especially if it's not
theirs. She should realize the hassle she will go thru when she wrecks the
loader and has to find a replacement. Maybe rap *teacher's* knuckles with a
cassette?
Regards,
Tom

 

[Bob Mohler]

It's probably a SuperBetamax.


Elaborate, please.

Do you mean the cassette loader carriage or the guideposts and advance arms?

In the case of the loader, sometimes there is a gear inside that mechanism
which can break, usually because someone loads the cassette too hard. The
problem is that it could be any one of the gears in the loader mecha that may
be bad. People need to learn to load tapes by gently pushing in until the
machine takes it in by itself. It doesn't need help in taking the tape in
after triggering the loader.

The good news is that you may be able to order a replacement from Sony, if you
can describe the part that you need or have access to a service manual to tell
you what the part number is.


Well, I know of a person who might have a Betamax that works for sale. A Sony
SL-20, which is a regular Beta. I must ask him about that. - Reinhart

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mr. Reinhart;
Sorry, it IS a Super Betamax, SL-300 and it IS the cassette loading
carriage. Have had many VCR's with these problems and it certainly is
the pushy hands in a hurry and can't spare the half-second wait to let
it load itself. You are very kind to look to your source on the Sony
SL-20, if customers existing tapes can be played on it. Have done a
little writing on this site and you are the most courteous and
concerned person I have dealt with. Everyone here should be as
helpful and generous with their knowledge as yourself. I'll hang
around and see what your source can come up with. Have local dealer
here, but must pay an arm and half a leg for it.
Thanks to you, Bob Mohler