Hi, bought an Hs-P07 Aiwa walkman. Replaced belt etc played but a bit muffled. Cleaned tape head with alcohol and worked great on forward but reverse was one channel muffled sound. The head has some pitting on it due to moisture in storage I would say. Tried the solvol autosol cleaner on the head and now have very quiet muffled sound one way and very little white noise the other. I will upload pictures of head for your valued opinions.
That head certainly doesn't look good. There's a lot of pitting and something resembling rust in the head gap area. What have you done with that solvol autosol cleaner exactly ? Have you cleaned the residue after polishing ? I didn't quite understand: did the sound improve after polishing the head or it got worse ? Given how extensive the damage it, at this point the only solution I see is lapping the head or polishing it further until the surface becomes smooth and that rust-like color disappears.
I had both channels fair sound one way and in reverse I had one poor channel, after cleaning with cotton bud and metal polish i now only have 1 channel working in total. I have measured back of tape head coils 3 seem OK 330 ohms I believe and one at 29 and dropping down. Head seams to have 6050 H45C written on it but seems to be like hens teeth to get a hold of.
Did you thoroughly clean the head after applying that polishing paste ? Maybe some remained in the head gaps, prevening good head tape contact. 330ohms resistance is correct, that's about the value it should be. Although measuring resistance alone doesn't tell the whole picture, as inductance will play a much more significant role. For example, a problem in the head core like a crack will not be detected by a resistance measurement, but will change the inductance dramatically. At this point can't tell you what direction to go, cause I can't see the unit, but I would recommend measuring the resistance at the PCB, making sure there isn't a connection problem. The head doesn't look that bad to think it's beyond restore, but it could be.
