In the past few months, I've brought back to life my old turntable and cassette deck that have languished in a cupboard for over 30 years. Not that I've great affection for either medium but I have a number of LPs and cassettes not available as cds or online that I want to record in a decent quality digital format.
The turntable needed complete dismantling and cleaning of dried oil and grease from all bearings, including the motor, but a Youtube vid showed how. A new drive belt cost a couple of quid.
The cassette deck, a three-header, was more of a challenge. The deck worked after a fashion but some tapes sounded really weird, others randomly stopped and the rest were fine. The deck being direct drive, there were no drive belts to replace but clearly something was wrong. It turned out to be the rubber pinch roller, which had set solid with age and was losing its grip on the tape.
Another Youtube vid, another dismantling exercise. A new pinch roller (eight quid) fixed everything bar a channel imbalance. Inspired by Retro Electro Workshop, I had a hunt round the main circuit board that was now exposed amid a heap of bits on the kitchen table. This revealed two pairs of tiny, tiny potentiometers, one labelled, in faded tiny print, PBK L R and the other REC L R. A spray of contact cleaner and a small tweak of one of the PBK ones with a watchmaker's screwdriver and all was ok.
I can now record from both units to my soundcard's line-in via the amp's zone 2 analog output using Audacity.