The dangerous world of Reel-to-Reel Tape

@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!

Ha Ha

Tusk master tape and most of Fleetwood Mac brain cells must have been baked in a toaster oven in the studio… @atmasphere  Merry Christmas Ralph !

This might be familiar to all but it bears repeating: Vintage BASF and EMItape don't sticky shed but Ampex does. The difference between these is formulation, and where the former two use whale blubber oil as a binder, Ampex used petroleum derivatives. This change took place presumably because whale hunting is sadistic & unethical, and in the early seventies became a hot potato outside of Japan.