Thanks guys. It's such a relief to finally have this resolved. I look at it this way..., inflating 1981 dollars to present value would put a new X1000R right at $4,000. I have way less in this deck than that and that includes the damage done by Mr. Moron.
As opined above, the local "tech" is toast in my book.
Bias on the LHII switch is set for the ATR Magnetics MDS36 tape and I'm sitting on a few blank reels. I plan on putting one to work today. I think I'll even go the DBX route as well. What the heck, you only live once!