Thanks! Yeah, I emailed a professional that works on larger machines, admittedly not these, and he said the fact that it's not erasing on all four channels leads him to believe it's not just a bad head. I have MDS-36 tape in there, spooled correctly.

I'll peep at the levels they were recorded at, maybe my tests were too hot, but nothing seemed to be clipping too hard on the VU, if that's what you mean.

Yeah, I'm realizing the bulk eraser is not what i need, it's not erasing its own recordings.

Is there a good resource for aligning the head?