3 - The mod kit

I know that there are many people that, like me, are audio enthusiastics and may have the necessary knowledge in electronics to do this mod by themselves, but, there are also many ones that do not know how to do this or may not feel confortable to deal with it, for several reasons.

So, knowing that there are many people in the world that, like me, love their GX-77 and have this same problem, i decided to create a mod kit that can be installed by anyone.

Installation is very simple and for doing it you don't need to be an expert in electronics! However, you do need to have basic skills about using a simple soldering iron and a couple of tools to cut some wires and join a few other and deal with some screws! Really, that's only it!

For the installation of this mod, you will be given a detailed tutorial with step-by-step explanation about what to do, including all necessary (but very basic) schematics just to let you understand what you will be doing.

Of course, you will not get a prototype board such as the one shown above - you will get a fabric version, just like the one you can see below. It's a dual layer PCB, with high quality components, manually assembled, tested and fully certified on LAB before shipping:

WHAT DOES THE KIT INCLUDE?

The kit will include the PCB board with all the components already mounted. The board will always be tested before shipment.

It will also include a PDF document with a detailed tutorial with step-by-step explanation about what to do, including all necessary and very basic schematics just to let you understand what you will be doing. This document will contain both text and pictures to better illustrate the necessary tasks.

Bellow you can observe the most part of the installation tutorial. The complete tutorial will be sent to you by email, if you get the kit:

LIMITATIONS OR CONSTRAINTS TO USAGE

I must inform that after installation of this mod kit you may experience two small limitations or constraints, if i can call it this way, related with the use of the machine, that is:

1 - The machine, as it comes from factory, provides the user with the facility to switch directly from the FFWD spooling function to the FRWD function, without having to press the STOP button.

Once you have modded your machine with the mod kit, if you want to switch from the FFWD spooling function to the FRWD function you will have to press the STOP button before pressing the FRWD button. If you don´t press STOP, and just switch directly from FFWD spooling function to FRWD function, then the tape will stop and you will have to press FRWD a second time.

2 - AKAI GX-77 can accept up to 18cm reel sizes. In a non-modded machine, you can set up the machine with different reel sizes on the Left and on the Right sides when you use both the FFWD or FRWD functions. For example, you can install a 13cm reel on the Left side (feeding spool) and a 18cm reel on the Right side (take up spool) and both the functions should work fine.

Once you have modded your machine with the mod kit, you should only use reels of the same size, both on the Left and Right spool sides. So, you should only use two 13cm reels or two 18cm reels. You should not use different reel sizes.

What will happen, if you use different reel sizes is that when you press FFWD or FRWD buttons, one of the reels (depending if it is the feeding or the take up reel) will run faster than the other one, because one of them is smaller and with less weight than the other, thus originating a too much loose or too much tensioned tape, wich, in the first case, will remove too much tension from the tape tension arms wich will cause tape to loop and then the machine will auto-stop.

If same size reels are used, both on Left and Right sides, no problem at all will occur.

Now, this two situations that i just described may or may not be considered a "problem" or "issue" or "limitation" or "constraint" or whatever you may want to call it. It just depends about the importance that you may give (or not) to it. I have heard people (few) that said this two situations are important issues and they just don´t like it. On the other side, i have heard other people that said to me that they do not care about, that this two situations are not that important and the main thing is that the spooling speed was considerably improved.

For me, it is not important if i have to press STOP before switching from FFWD to FRWD or vice-versa, because i always use to do it, anyway. Also, it is not important if i can´t use FFWD or FRWD functions if i have different reel sizes installed - that´s because i only use 18cm reels, i don´t have 13cm reels.

Again, i recall that the mod kit does not affect in anyway the PLAY function, it only affects the FFWD/FRWD functions, so, if you want to PLAY different mixed size reels you can do it, of course.

HOW CAN I GET THIS MOD KIT?

If you are interested in this mod kit, you can contact me by email at caos.drums@gmail.com

RETURNS OR REFUNDS:

I will not accept returns nor refunds.

DISCLAIMMER:

I will not assume any kind of responsability by any damages caused by changes that may be done to any GX-77 machine, by anyone that eventually follows the ideas exposed in this site or even have got the mod kit evolved by me.

If you decide to make modifications to your machine based on this site or the mod kit evolved by me, you assume all the responsability for that.