[GrahamCollins]

I have recently been entrusted with nearly 50 original reel to reel demos produced by PAMS, PT and JAM dating back as far as 1968 and fully expected transferring them to be a labour of love, with a lot head cleaning and patience but I have to say that all of them are in perfect condition with no oxide loss, drop outs or stickiness. Amazing. I don’t know what make of tape was used but whatever it is, it is holding up very well !

On the other hand, some of Adrian Juste’s reels from 1993 that I have been transferring have not fared so well (Ampex 456) and require head cleaning every 30″ or so and a lot of assembly editing afterwards….. I’ve never quite been brave enough to bake a tape.

So the message must be, if you have tapes in the loft awaiting a rattle through the Revox, only worry if it says Ampex on the box !

[gameswizardMember]

I have no experience with reel tape at all.
But with audio cassette tape, I found AGFA’s ferrocolor/Type I range shed far too much oxide.
Mucky things they were.

[UKJinglesMember]

Totally agree with you Mike…Boots own brand (remember the pale green label) was another inferior make!
Thank God for the Digital Age..
Just need to transfer all the Good Stuff before it’s too late!

[GrahamCollins]

Mike is spot on – awful things. Back in the day a friend suggested TDK cassettes, so I tried one out and never changed brand, although I did have pretty much every type – all transferred and binned now except for a couple of metal shelled MA-R90s – the ultimate compact cassette !

In my opinion, the good guys were all Japanese:

TDK
Sony
Maxell

The Nothing Special brigade included:

Philips
BASF
Agfa
Scotch
Memorex

And the hopeless were the ‘own brands’:

Boots
WHSmiths
Realistic
Certron

[IanMember]

Totally agree Graham.
I stuck with TDK after trying so many others of the day.
I believe the proof is in the pudding when I listen to some of the posts I’ve done on the Radio 1 memories thread. You can tell the cheaper tapes from the quality. But I was only earning £2.90 for a 6 days a week paper round.

[Tracy CarmanMember]

Scotch 806 also has “sticky tape” issues. It started when they stopped using whale oil as part of the tape formulation… circa 1974-ish. I also have a crapload of Agfa reels that are so bad, the tape looks like clear tape encasing mud.

If you want baking tips, let me know. We baked over 3,000 TM reels to get them to play.

-TC

[Jim Donahue]

My old tape collection, which numbered several hundred, was about 90% TDK and 10% Sony.
Brings back memories – I haven’t physically handled a cassette tape in almost a decade now!

[IanMember]

I had great fun digitising all my old tapes. So many happy memories.

[scotronMember]

Back in the day, I always used TDK. It just seems to have that quality feel to it. I am intrigued about the term ‘baking’ a tape. Can someone enlighten me please.

[bobgreenradioMember]

i found the 50cent 1800′ reel of shamrock to be a wonderful value. then i was told it was ampex 457 that failed the dropout test at the factory. i kept buying it. still have it. still in great shape. the basf was the very worst of the better brands. sony was poor until they came up with ‘fecro2’. that was fantastic. maxell doesnt exist. its hitachi, and quite popular, but fair. tdk is far better. memorex? made where? by who? for awhile it was realistic from ireland (radioshack owned memorex for a time). pdm was ok. agfa was ok, fuji was good, konica was ok, 3m? – sandpaper!
never played with agfa.
and that whale oil thing is true, and it got gummy in 12 years.

[AndyWMember]

Ampex was the worst for me. Nearly all of my Ampex reels from the 90’s are pretty awful. Zonal who were part of Racal were the tape of choice for the BBC and some commercial stations for a while. Cheaper than Ampex and stood the test of time much better. I have reels going back to the 70’s that play with absolutely no shed and as a result sound fantastic. I believe they are still around as a tape manufacture. The one or two Jam masters I have also play fine.

I believe baking tapes is not something to be attempted using domestic equipment. I had some reels of mid 70’s EMITAPE baked in a professional facility 18 months ago and it was worth doing. They said something like 50 degrees centigrade for two days does the job but domestic ovens can’t regulate a temperature that low. Their ovens were built for the job by Ampex.

[Tracy CarmanMember]

We bake tapes in food dehydrators… not ovens.

[JohnL]

I have extensive experience with reels, having recorded my first one damn near 50 years ago.

That said, most of my tapes (even those approaching 50) still play quite well. Unless subjected to extremes of temperature and humidity, kept dry and stored at reasonable temperatures, they will exhibit few if any problems.

During my peak reel to reel archiving days, I found Maxell to be the best brand, even better than any of the classic Scotch formulations (such as 111) in how well they have held up. TDK and Memorex reels from the 60’s-70’s also still play just fine. Sony tapes have held up well, but I never found them to record with the same quality of other brands. Same with the least remembered brand, that being Kodak! Yes they made reel to reel tape for a short time and those reels still play problem free.

As you know some types of Ampex tapes have proven to suffer significant ‘stickton’ (AKA sticky shed) problems. I have far too many 10″ reels of Ampex ’20/20 Studio Quality’ Mastering Tape… mainly purchased in the late 70’s… like many back coated tapes, the chemicals used to bind the oxide to the tape deteriorated badly, and everyone of those reels needs ‘repairs’ today! Sure they worked great back ‘in the day’… but they need significant baking today (and Yes TC, I too, use a food dehydrator)… before I had one, someone sent me a reel of jingle tracks that I just had to get to play!

The reel would only play if treated with a rag soaked with isopropyl alcohol, prior to it’s reaching the guides and heads. Got the one play out of the reel needed to digitalize the beds… so, in a pinch, there is this option… assuming you are also willing to clean the heads and the tape path after every few minutes of playing such tapes. If you choose to bake using an oven, use one of the convection variety. Instructions on ‘how to’ do so are available all over the web… a simple ‘Google’ search on tape ‘stickton’ problems will lead you to them.

Maxell back coated tapes from the 70’s all still play fine. A while back, I found an unused reel of Maxell from over 30 years ago, and tried a test recording on one of my ancient Revox decks… and it recorded fine, no noticeable drop outs or other anomalies. The non back coated Ampex reels I have all still play well.

[KevinKillion]

I got a food dehyrator at a garage sale, and it works great in revitalizing tapes made during the 1970s when the composition used for many of them changed. The dehyrator conveniently has six or so laters, so I can handle six tapes at once. After a couple of hours, they’re ready to be transferred with little or no sticking. I’ve been told that the effect is temporary, so you need to play them immediately after.

[Tracy CarmanMember]

I got a food dehyrator at a garage sale, and it works great in revitalizing tapes made during the 1970s when the composition used for many of them changed. The dehyrator conveniently has six or so laters, so I can handle six tapes at once. After a couple of hours, they’re ready to be transferred with little or no sticking. I’ve been told that the effect is temporary, so you need to play them immediately after.

The tape is playable for about 30 days before they soak up enough moisture to become unplayable again. Your mileage may vary!

[Author]

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