Thanks for the nice replies gents. I agree, qualified techs are becoming increasing difficult to find. The problem is age. Most of the guys that were in the business 40 years ago are in their 60's and later. Sam Palermo in Chicago is top notch on Teac, Tascam and Pioneer decks. Probably other makes as well. What I like about him is he is still passionate about tape decks and pays close attention to all the little details.
I'm so encouraged and pleased with the results that I bought an excellent condition RC100 remote for it. I put it through its paces tonight and it performs perfectly. Now ol' Freddie doesn't have to rise from his command center position to do mundane tasks like FF or RR or Pause. Being able to zoom through a track you don't really want to hear is sweetness defined.
And BTW, the DBX feature on this deck is really, really good.