That is one choice but I'm "gun shy" about Tascam. I tried an 8 channel unit and the headphone out had low level hum in it (it was in the Tascam unit as I didn't get any headphone hum with any other unit). But for a backup unit that may never be used it may be OK.
Not sure what I'm going to get, but it will have at least 4 mic/instrument preamps.
I still need 8 channels for recording. I did an "on site" recording yesterday of our Cowboy Church band (I'm one of them) plus two singers (the Pastor and another singer). I had two channels for the drums, one for the Bass, one for the lead guitar, one for my Pedal Steel Guitar, one for the Rhythm Guitar and two for singers. I did a live recording of our regular band, at a show, about 6 months ago; it was two for drums, one for bass, one for lead, one for my steel, one for rhythm guitar and two mic's for singer and backup singer. For the drums, I have one kick drum mic and I have a Ribbon that use as an "overhead" for the rest of the drums - works good for "country".
I probably got you and the friend beat. I was 80 last December (and still going like I did when I was 60)......
Jack