Excited states in neutron-rich tantalum isotopes have been studied with deep-inelastic reactions us-ing 136 Xe ions incident on a 186 W target. New transitions observed below the τ=1.3 µs isomer in 183 Ta have enabled the establishment of its energy and put limits on the spin and parity. On the basis of the reduced hin-drances for the depopulating transitions, a 3-quasiparticle configuration of ν1/2 − [510]11/2 + [615] ⊗ π9/2 − [514] is suggested.