Internships or apprenticeships in tape deck repair?
 

It looks like VCR and other tape deck repair is a relatively small industry with a few highly skilled people who've been working in it for years. From what I've read in the forums, it's an art and a creative endeavor that requires technical knowledge and practice, practice, practice to master. The trade ought to continue to be available as long as tape media exists. Eventually the technicians in the field are going to retire, so of course the skill needs to be taught to as many people as possible to prevent it from going the way of Roman concrete.

I'm wondering if there are technicians who would be interested in starting small with an intern or apprentice. I'm sure it's also possible to do blog posts, write books, host panels, presentations, seminars, workshops, or teach classes or entire multi-semester courses in the various electronics and engineering of the machines. The subject can go as in-depth as redesigning new IC chips or reverse engineering decks in masters university programs, or could be as simple as a one-off high school slideshow to garner interest in the general topic.

I'm personally interested in a short internship (a week to a month long), but I realize there are others who would be ahead of me in line that might already be halfway towards getting into it as a part-time job or full-time career. Part of my school's requirement is written documentation of what students do during their internship, so that'd be relayed for others to read, too. I'm in Louisville, KY, but I can travel a decent distance and I have enough vacation days to make it feasible.

The problem is lack of parts and tools, You can't properly do a repair job whith no tools or parts. and no one really is interested in doing it for a loss or free because such repairs are costly and not a lot of people are willing to pay $500 or more to fix their VCR that they bought $20 from the thrift store or ebay. True fully restored to factory spec machines cost anywhere from $2000 to $3500.
I know a lot of newbies come here and wonder why everything is expensive (VCR's, capture hardware, maintenance...etc) and how can we make it cheap for everybody, Well being a niche legacy task like any other niche hobby of vintage equipement, it is expensive because of the dwindling supply of working machines, parts and techs to fix them. It is what it is.

Ultimately it's economics. There used to be a large, thriving industry. The demand these days is too small to incentivize greater supply of goods and services.

Had this been about 15 years ago, I'd have invited you to Nashville, where I was at that time. I did a lot for/with college students back then, and was even interviewed for a thesis (and part of that interview was shared on this site).

But then again, 15 years ago, I didn't know as much as I know now about deck refurb/repair. However, it was really just a matter of not needing to do refurb/repair, as gear was still fine back then. So a timing mismatch, and timing is everything.

As others have stated, the macro is also a timing mismatch. It's a fading niche skill that has become costly. Those will all get worse, too. Less people, less gear, higher costs.

You'll find most repair is for serious DIY/hobby/pro users, and priced accordingly. People that want it done cheap don't seem to understand we wouldn't do it at all for the cheapskate prices they expect. It doesn't cover parts and time/labor if mispriced. Then nobody would do it, and then we'd have a serious gear shortage then. And no, corporate/Chinese/etc would not step in to fill the niche void, no ROI.

Back in the day every city you go to there is at least 2 or 3 VCR and TV repair shops, Even some of them really sucked at diagnosing properly the problem at least they have a gazillian of sister decks that they can swap parts or assemblies to find out where the problem is, Not to mention that they had the necessary tools such as measuring devices and guages, RF meters, adjusting tools, calibration tapes ..etc. You don't have that luxuray now, For example when you do a recap job you suppose to recalibrate the VCR to factory specification, But since there is no factory reference to go by due to lack of calibration tapes you just aim for a good playback from a pre-recorded tape.

I've said before, i'm really worried about this knowledge being lost. I'd happily pay smurf or deter for video repair guides. Hell, nothing fancy, just set up a gopro when you repair something next and hit record. Talk through it. Keep it all private until you're out of the business.

In that case you are probably not aware of 12voltvids and video99.co.uk and many more credible YT channels doing just that.

I am and have already pulled most of that content down. But they don't seem to be heavy into TBC repair or AG1980 repair like a few others. The more documentation the better.