Ill unscrew it tommorrow and see what happens. Will post pics and all.

There are two pieces of the mech to check on- the one that holds the play key down to make sure the key catches on it, and the one in the deck that checks for tension to automatically stop the deck at the end of the tape.

I bought a Fair mate unit at a flea market and it works, plays, records, got a mic included, etc, but when I press play and/or record it only works WHILE pressing, the very moment you stop pressing it jumps up and stops playing/recording. Any mechanical way to fix this?

uh oh. i didn't mean it in a negative way! im a big fan of tape stuff. i actually need to find a nice cassette deck one of these days. i've got quite a few tapes but my little walkman died about a year ago. i passed up an Akai deck at a thrift shop over the summer and really regret it now.

Ive seen that shit, people is buying some sort of omvi or whatever walkman to record mp3's off your tapes. Its completely opposite from what I want anyways, haha

Yeah. I forgot the brandname.. I think it's like... Omni or something. Stay away from that junk. I'm sure they probably sell them other places besides walmart, maybe... haha. But probably not in Spain... but you never know...

Lucky for me we dont have walmarts in spain. Im sure theres an equivalent but I wont find a tape recorder there.

Good thing he didn't go all the way with "totally irresponsible"

Q: What is a good tape recorder? A: One which does not eat tape. Do not get the ones they have at wal-mart they are junk and will die on you in a month.

That kind of shit is what im looking for. Something I can use to dump tracks on cassete for limited releases OR  something to record my shitty band.

Ill give you 3 euros for yours and a bubblegum. (all i have) xD

BASF were decent, but quality dropped rapidly when they became EMTEC. Unfortuantely nowadays EMTEC tapes are the only ones you can more or less easily get, at least in Europe.
I've been a TDK fan since my early tape meddling days. I'd say stick with those if you can get them.

As far as media goes, I rank cassettes in order of quality:

Denon
BASF
Everything Else

Not that anyone asked.

I have a Califone A45 5270 and I really like it, the onboard mic is perfect for lo fi demo recordings of my band.

I've got a Yamaha MT120, it's not bad for something I saved from getting binned.

Lots of good advice here, but thought I'd throw out a little known option, Hi-Fi VHS. the stereo track is an FM signal recorded deep below the video; has very high S/N and very low THD and flutter. The durability of the tape is really the let down, so try to find the best quality cassette.
Look for a deck with audio metering; some decks need a video signal, others don't. For the quality, the price is great.
Yogi

Glad I added the modifier then !