Athan Pinch Rollers

[MylesBAstor]

Does anyone have any experience or feedback on these replacement rollers?

[jcmusic]

Myles,
I have used them for years on one of my decks with great success!!! The seem to last forever...

[MylesBAstor]

Thanks! Athan also claims that the bearings in their replacement pinch roller vs the bushings in the original Technics decks makes a difference.

[Bruce B]

Yes, used them for years. Great rollers. But make sure you use the correct roller for the width of tape you are using.

Remember, you only want the roller in contact with the tape and not the capstan!

[MylesBAstor]

Yes, used them for years. Great rollers. But make sure you use the correct roller for the width of tape you are using.

Remember, you only want the roller in contact with the tape and not the capstan!

Thanks Bruce, I'll double check again before ordering! Think that's more of an issue with your Pro than with the prosumer decks that were basically 1/4-inch.

[Ki Choi]

There are 24 main bearings on an A820 without counting the four tension sensor bearings and the bearings in the supply and capstan motors. At $25 a pop, George at Athan's had received lots of my money. Then there's A80s...

So I had explored other options knowing that the Athan's bearing came from mfg in Singapore. I had purchased bearings from specialty shops in Japan and Korea but the problem was - although they were all supposed to be ABEC 5 bearings, I would have to sort them out and could yield only about 4 acceptable bearings out of 10 tried. Thus at the end, I wasn't gaining any cost advantage by souring other bearings.

I will be sending more money to George soon.

[Ki Choi]

I guess my comment was a bit off - focusing on quality of Athan's bearings instead of the subject line of Athan's pinch rollers. I had been using Studer original pinch rollers, Terry Witt's rebuilt rollers, and Athan's pinch rollers. In the old days of hoarding master recorders, one of the ways I used to gauge the machine's condition was to examine the wear on the capstan and condition of the pinch roller. When a recorder had a nice firm pinch roller in yellow to amber color, it was George's Athan roller - meaning the studio had taken good care of the machine. I used to buy it sight unseen. The original Studer rubber is firmer but buying new replacement would be not feasible. That's where Terry's rebuilt rubber rollers come in. I'll have to say Terry's rollers perform as good as the Studer originals and the Athan's. But at the end Athan's yellow roller do look cool on a machine and gives it a well tuned look.

BTW, there are two bearings on A820's pinch roller.

[astrotoy]

I bought a replacement Athan pinch roller for my Otari MX5050 BIII. Works like a charm. I picked it up in South SF, where George has his factory.

Larry

[MylesBAstor]

Yes, you can order the Athans on eBay.

[Nevillekapadia]

I have ordered the pinch rollers for my Technics 1500 plus the cleaner, from his eBay store.

[MylesBAstor]

I have ordered the pinch rollers for my Technics 1500 plus the cleaner, from his eBay store.

On my list. I just swapped power cords to the King-Cello from the Kubala-Sosna Emotion to Elation. I might pull one or two others out to try too.

[MylesBAstor]

So I finally ordered a pair of rollers for my Technics machine. Just one question. There is a set screw that’s currently holds the stock pinch roller in place. Tried loosening it with the right Allen wrench but seemed really tight. So stopped before wrecked anything. Any suggestions or experience?

[don]

Myles I have used PB blaster with great success when bolts are corroded and become too tight. I would spray a little into a plastic cup and use a q tip to spread around the the bolt where it meets the surface of the pinch roller cap and it will find it's way down on the threads, let it sit overnight and it should have loosened enough for you to remove.

[dminches]

Myles, you may want to try to spin the cap and see if that loosens the screw. Also, there should be plastic washers both in front of the behind each of the rollers. When you take the rollers off they tend to fall off, especially the front one. Make sure you hold onto them since you need to reuse them.

[MylesBAstor]

Thanks guys for the info.

[Galileo]

I have these on my J-Corder Technics 1520 and they offer much better tape handling and generally greater reliability than the stock pinch rollers on the 1520.