Heads

Hi there peeps!
Michael... I have to clean my vx2000 heads... should I use a head cleaning tape, or do it manually (if manually, how do I do this?)
Thanks-
Luna

Thats a KOZ question. I was always told never to use those cleaners, wet or dry. Have it professionally done.

mike

Koz... are you there? I called the 'Video Clinic' in Santa Monica, and the quote for cleaning was 300 dollars... is this ballpark, or a little high? Seems like a lot.
Ayuda-
Luna

Generally they dont just clean the heads they do an alignment too. YOU might try TV Masters in Holywood. I think they are cheaper.



Mike

<<<I have to clean my vx2000 heads>>>

And you know this because....?

Heads don't generally get dirty. They are designed to have the slightest bit of friction and that rubs the dirt off as it accumulates.

If you are creating damaged tapes or your system will no longer play tapes, you may need much more than a simple head cleaning.

What are the symptoms? We started creating bad tapes on a Canon GL-1 and the machine had to go back to Canon somewhere behind the Orange Curtain for servicing. We wore it out. The tape guides were damaged.

Koz

Well, the tapes drop out sound here and there, and sometimes the capture will report broken TC and stop. All I could think was that they're dirty. I've used it a lot over the past three years and have never cleaned it.
Maybe something else?
Luna

As Koz pointed out, the heads are to a certain extent self cleaning. Sometimes a fast forward and rewind of a tape is enough to dislodge a freak speck of die hard dust (play-FF and play-REW, if you stop-FF many mechanisms lift the tape off the head). Cleaning tapes are notoriously errosive and I wouldn't recommend manual cleaning if you've never done it before.

If you haven't had it serviced or cleaned in three years, I'd say go for a full check-up and get a pro to clean the heads and check the alignment and mechanism. It's not uncommon to see maintanance needs after 3 years, in fact I've seen failures like this on Canon XL-1 after 12-14 months (and I was so certain it was a dirty head, I smelled like alcohol for a week).

Geir.

Okay, well then maybe I'll do the full checkup. It's good to know these things. There have been some posts where people are saying clean them regularly or else you're reducing the cameras lifespan. Thanks-
Luna