The Adventure of the Eclectica Studios' MCI JH110B 1/4" Mastering deck.

By Tim Dolbear
www.timdolbear.com

 Our new MCI JH110B 1/4" Mastering Deck has arrived!  The unit works but I want it brought back to spec and update all the things that a 1979 unit should have, and needs to have, updated and addressed.

Over the next month or two I will be completely refurbishing our new MCI JH110B. If you want to follow along.         Subscribe to my blog!

The unit was damaged a little in shipping, the wood supports that hold the Deck to the housing split and the unit bounced inside the rack bending a metal support holding the motherboard.  So that's the first thing I will be fixing. Since all the circuit boards need to come off for recap/socket replacement and so on, I will strip the unit and fix the supports so I can rebuild it as the pieces are recapped and fixed up.


This unit has the horrible Red IC sockets still on only about 1/2 of the motherboards, The ICs just fall out of them. The unit looks like it was maintained well and many things fixed in the late 1990's.

So new sockets, recapping and reseating the Molex connectors all need to be done. I need to also go through the Power Supply and clean every square inch of every thing. The unit works but I want it brought back to spec and update the things a 1979 unit should have and needs to have updated.


The 2 head stacks I have are both off to JRF this week. JRF had relapped the heads once before as their sticker and info are on them. The Erase head has a small chip out of the face, not where tape touches, If JRF decides its an issue we have a 2nd spare head stack we can pull parts from.



This is a picture of The Landcaster Opera House in Buffalo, NY. We believe this MCI 1/4" lived and worked here from 1979 until put into storage around 2000. The unit was then purchased by an engineer 10 years later who was going to restore it and never got time to. Now its here at Eclectica Studios in Austin Tx.