The dangerous world of Reel-to-Reel Tape

Around the mid 2000’s, I noticed my Ampex tapes started to sound muddy and were leaving a lot of residue on the tape heads, pinch rollers, and transport mechanism so I had to stop using them (because they sounded like crap).

@oldschool1948 This is the shedding to which I was referring in my prior post.

Tapes that have this problem, if not too severe, can be baked in an oven at low temperature to chase out the moisture that is causing the shedding.

About 175 degrees works; you need at least 2 hours. Its better if you remove the tape from the reel (this have what is known as a 'pancake') so the moisture can leave easier. But I've baked tapes without doing that and its worked fine. We keep a toaster oven in the studio for this purpose.

I should also point out that tape heads and guides need to be periodically deguassed because they can pick up a residual magnetic field that will slowly erase the high frequencies on the tape. To do that you need a tape head demagnetizer.

@kraftwerkturbo  I have a mix-tape cassette I made of college radio tracks from 1983 (dubbed from my then-new records) and it stall plays quite well! It's a Memorex Type II with Dolby B.

On commercial open-reel I have a Tom Jones s/t album on Parrot, Wonderland Of Bert Kaempfert, J. Lennon's Plastic Ono Band on Apple and owned (but recently sold) Hendrix' Band Of Gypsies on Capitol, all original 7.5 ips tapes printed & sold around 1968-71, all still play great.

@atmasphere I considered trying to bake the tapes, but at that time in my life, I had neither the time or inclination to do so.  I do have a head demagnetizer. It came with a Teac reel-to-reel maintenance kit, which has just about everything one needs to clean and service the heads, pinch rollers, transport mechanism, splice tapes, and leaders,  etc.  I’ve had it since 1981.

Back in the 80’s and early 90’s when I used my R2R a lot, I’d demagnetize the heads and transport mechanism about once a month.  I did not know if that was enough or too much, but it worked for me.  I did keep the demagnetizer away from my tapes 😀. 

Someone left the tape out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh no!