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, so while not a degradation (i.e. getting worse over time), it will still cause issues with reproduction. What distinguishes this failure mode from “Squealing, limited shedding” is that there is frequency modulation introduced during the original recording which was presumptively made when the tape was new. While adding additional lubrication will reduce the frequency modulation during playback (which is very important), it will do nothing to correct the recorded-in frequency modulation. The only method of correcting that is bias capture with the same head as the audio capture and running the resultant files through the Plangent Processes.
