Sharp RT-3151 Heads

On my unit, the audio record/playback head, and the erase head, had come to the end of their useful life. One disadvantage of the Automatic Program Locate Device (APLD) function is that it makes the tape speed past the heads, and pinch roller, resulting in all of these components wearing out fast. If you used it too much then your tape surface would wear out as well as stretch. Ideally, you should avoid using these functions if you have one of these old units.

This is the record/playback head, and as you can see, the top layer is flaking off. Incredibly, even something as worn out as this still sounds good upon playback in this tape deck.

This is the erase head, which also looks worn.

This Article Continues...