This particular piece holds a dear place in the sentimental recesses of my mind. In the mid 1990s the shop sold this Fostex 260 to a Jamaican man, a few months later he returned claiming it was broken and he wanted his money back. The ensuing conversation was one of those instances when I wish I had been wired for sound and recording the proceedings around me. The satisfaction of seeing my boss called a thieving swine by an irate Jamaican was magnificent, and "Eit was brooken frum teh geat gwo" was instantly forged into our vocabulary when any ailing piece of shit crossed the threshold into our domain. The actual back and forth between this man and my boss dragged out for close to a year as we tried to make the man happy within the confines of not giving his money back, good times.


After being deposited in the bad amp room, much neglect and dust did ensue.

After giving it the exterior once over I power it up and began functional tests. Guess what. It actually is broken. The tape transport does register commands, but goes "clack clack clack clack clack" instead of moving tape. I haven't yet bothered with pushing signal through the mixer portion, because LED are far less satisfying to watch than VU meters.

The mixing capability on this deck is pretty impressive for a four track, allowing for two independent stereo mixes (Main and Monitor) in addition to two mono Aux sends and sweepable frequencies on both Bass and Treble ranges.

While the marketing sticker on the face isn't quite as unscathed as that of the 250, the head is in similar condition.


I fudged my depth of field position a little bit, but the mirror finish of the head is evident.

Forward momentum on the PA system has dwindled a bit, one week and counting. It's more or less sorted and ready to fall into place, I'll probably trickle photo essay on the amp stacks out for a while.

In other news, I've bowed to the compulsion of grabbing some ailing multi-tracks out of storage and see what I can do for them. This being a FAR cheaper way of going about an analog capture of rehearsals than open reel tape, which is forced by means of economics to be serious recording only (at least in my world).

Up today is a Fostex 250. I think this may be the first cassette multi-track offering by Fostex, though I cannot be sure. I believe this hails from 1981 or 2, and it's not one to be dropped on your foot. (edit: a sticker at the bottom places "date purchased" at 10-18-1984)


First visual indicates the knobs have been plucked, minor irritant. This deck was in the same salvage operation as the Heil 400 power amp discussed previously, so I'm not complaining.


Channel 3 VU isn't homing to zero, hopefully this is a simple mechanical fix. I did power the unit up and run signal through all four channels, at first only meter 2 registered. I proceeded to slam the channels a little one by one and got all meters to respond normally once they'd been pegged once. I'm still holding optimism that the electronics are more or less OK on this.

Transport only responds to FF and RW, play and stop are ignored. Since stop is ignored I'm thinking this may be oxidized crud at the switches and not failed rubber (if it hasn't failed yet it is surely ready to do so), record ready seems to function along with arming and disarming each track. So, logic appears responsive. I'm going to examine the rubber and see what I can do in terms of sourcing it (there's a heap of machines needing transport care, so you'll see a lot of disassembly before we find the mother lode of rubber bits to make us happy).


If the survival of a marketing sticker on the face of this didn't clue you in to the relative lack of wear this unit has seen, that head shot should. I'm hoping the gut shot we see once the case is cracked is just as pristine.