I know this has been brought up in a few posts before about playing your radio especially tape deck often and not allowing it to just sit on shelf. It has been my experience that letting it sit and not using it can cause issues especially in tape decks, pots and switches. The more you use it will really help to alleviate any issues especially with most units being 30 something years old. I also know technicians that will tell you after repairing decks to use them and not allow them to sit for any length of time. Now the bad news...
It has also been brought to our attention that many of the components in the units should not have lasted 30 something years. So therefore playing them can cause components to burn out. So what are we to do? Well in my opinion many of these units that we have probably were only used for a short period of time when new. You know a person bought the unit and maybe used it for a year then stuffed it in a closet or attic until just recently. Some may have put in a garage and used for short periods of time. The downfall is we really don't know unless we owned unit from new.
So in closing its a "damn if we do, damn if we don't" situation. If we use the units often, yeah the tape decks and pots/switches will work better and not break down but we may also be setting the components up to burn out. But if we don't use it, more than likely after sitting the unit may have deck or pot issues. So therefore what I have been doing, and I'm not even sure it will work, is just playing my units once a week or so for a short period to make sure everything stays working. And playing my new units for more often and longer times because the components are newer.
This is just my own personal opinion and so far I've had good luck with it lately but remember, these are 30+ years old and anything can happen at any given time. So be ready to have to open up every once in a while to make some sort of adjustment or to clean a pot/switch that is starting to sound scratchy
It has also been brought to our attention that many of the components in the units should not have lasted 30 something years. So therefore playing them can cause components to burn out. So what are we to do? Well in my opinion many of these units that we have probably were only used for a short period of time when new. You know a person bought the unit and maybe used it for a year then stuffed it in a closet or attic until just recently. Some may have put in a garage and used for short periods of time. The downfall is we really don't know unless we owned unit from new.
So in closing its a "damn if we do, damn if we don't" situation. If we use the units often, yeah the tape decks and pots/switches will work better and not break down but we may also be setting the components up to burn out. But if we don't use it, more than likely after sitting the unit may have deck or pot issues. So therefore what I have been doing, and I'm not even sure it will work, is just playing my units once a week or so for a short period to make sure everything stays working. And playing my new units for more often and longer times because the components are newer.
This is just my own personal opinion and so far I've had good luck with it lately but remember, these are 30+ years old and anything can happen at any given time. So be ready to have to open up every once in a while to make some sort of adjustment or to clean a pot/switch that is starting to sound scratchy
