Last updated 2021-03-11 — expanded Sony PR-150 and Melody 169 comments, minor other edits. 2020-11-23 — additional comments Soft Binder Syndrome section, below This page supersedes the blog page for a listing of tapes that have degraded in some way or another. This page is a list of tapes that we will attempt to keep …
I spent days trying to get Shamrock 031 to play without much success. Since this is an Ampex factory budget brand (probably non-spec premium tape) I thought that it might be suffering from Sticky Shed Syndrome. I baked it for 12 hours and it still squealed. I then tried my usually successful cold playing technique …
For a current list of degrading analog tapes, click here. For several years, we have been discussing the differences between Sticky Shed Syndrome (SSS) and Loss of Lubricant (LoL). It appears from my latest research (presented at the 2006 Audio Engineering Society’s 121st Convention in San Francisco in October) that LoL does not really factor …
This post has been updated as: http://richardhess.com/notes/2007/03/21/soft-binder-syndrome-and-sticky-shed-syndrome/ For a current list of degrading analog tapes, click here. For several years, we have been discussing the differences between Sticky Shed Syndrome (SSS) and Loss of Lubricant (LoL). Recent work in which I’m participating seems to indicate that what we thought was happening in both instances may …
In several instances, we have seen binder adhesion to the back of next layer in the tape pack. When the tape is unwound, a portion of the the binder adheres to the layer it was resting on, and is pulled off the layer it was supposed to be on. It looks like this when held …
0.15 incg (3.81 mm) wide tape is best known today for its use in the audio cassette, but it also has other uses. This is the narrowest audio tape in common use. In most applications, this tape runs at 1-7/8 inches (47.625 mm) per second (although a few run one or two speeds slower or …
Martin Fisher from the Center for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University wrote me this morning and he identified a subtly different failure mode that I had not specifically thought of previously. I think the following best describes it and its remediation. Manufactured with insufficient lubricant: This is a defect that appeared at birth, …
UPDATE: March 2008…Cold playback (see this article) seems to work with the two tapes mentioned in this article, 3M 175 and Sony PR-150. We’ve had confirmation from several sources who have tried it. For a current list of degrading analog tapes, click here. Fellow restorer Doug Pomeroy sent me a photocopy of Herman Burstein’s “Tape …
It appears that many old acetate tapes when played on high-quality audio recorders will suffer spoking when left in a play wind condition. I have discussed this problem here. Since posting that, I have taken one of my Racal Store 4DS recorders and removed the heads to save them from wear and now use that …
Here’s some info that might be useful concerning which batches of Ampex 456 are good and which have sticky shed problems. I recently unearthed 26 brand new 10 1/2-inch reels of 456 from 8 different batches. I checked one reel from each batch by playing them back and forth at 15ips (I only played the …
I have recently been looking to replenish my supply of D5 (Decamethylcyclopentasiloxane) and did not have much luck receiving replies to my email. Others have reported difficulty finding this in quantities smaller than a 55-gallon drum. I found a promising listing for cyclopentasiloxane and when I queried the supplier, he indicated that the analysis was …
Today I worked on a batch of five Sony PR-150 7-inch reels recorded at 3.75 in/s in one direction, two-track mono. One of the five reels showed marked shedding during fast-wind/rewind (to get the original reel as takeup and to check the tape pack). Four of the five reels played fine. This one squealed horribly. …