You do not need to "lube" tapes. I have 50 year old R2R tapes that sound fine. You are just going to "f" up the heads and tape path if you do.
When to lube reel to reel tapes
Hey guys- first post. Need some help.
made the slippery slope dive into reel to reel. Just starting out. Have snagged some fairly mint/near mint well stored collector zeppelin 7.5ips pre recorded tapes from 1970-1973. Have read that the lubricant on these tapes tends to deteriorate over time. Give the value of these tapes, would folks lube these before use, specially if they’ve not been played ever/very long time?