Hello, i have about 30 cassettes and all woks fine on my two deks, and walkmans, but one dont, it was new sealed, first run was fine but later it stuck, ff and rew works, but play not, it plays in begining but later much wow & flutter later it stops and autostop kiks in on main deck, on walkmans ewen worst. I tried ewerything even replaced slipsheat. Is there hope for my tape?
I bought a second hand pre-recorded tape that was like that. I even tried cracking it open and putting the reels in a new shell. The surprising thing was that FF and REW always worked perfectly. I can only think that the tape was sticking to the head when that was engaged. After all the messing about I threw it away.
@Boodokhan that was first thing ive tried, not once, i had one similar tape (optima 1) that started to wotk after few full play runs, this autostops. And winds not ewenly
I have a whole series of BBC pre recorded cassettes this sticking problem has occurred with but no other tapes. Same experience. They are all from the mid 90's and all worked when first played but several months later I noticed them dragging and slurring and eventually triggered auto stop on any deck or Walkman I used. I might try this re lube using a food grade silicone product on one of them to see if I can get one to play without problems. Thanks for sharing
I've tried this by silicone based spray, didint helped. Have idea, but not shure, maybe its stupid, but anyway tape is unusable, so maybe ill try carbon
According the discussion you have to let it sit for a month or so, maybe just ff/rew it during this period, to let the lubricant spread evenly. Here are some threads on tapeheads: http://www.tapeheads.net/showthread.php?t=38441 http://www.tapeheads.net/showthread.php?t=85520 I have around ten BASF LH extra I with this problem but nothing precious on them, so I didn't test it so far.
I am beginning to think this problem has more to do with the tape being affected by moisture and humidity. Some brands may have developed a sticky surface residue if exposed to moisture as they aged. I think this is likely with some bulk loaded mass produced tapes from the 90's. Certainly never had this problem with any TDK or Sony type IV or any type II tapes either.
I bought about 15 BASF LH extra I last year and almost all of them have this problem. In the batch I bought there were 2 types, one with white sticker, one with yellow sticker. From the white ones, not a single one could be saved. I tried cleaning the tape with the shell opened and fast forwarding with no success. Most of them started squeeling at the end and shedded a lot of oxide on the head and pinch roller. One particular thing that could be seen on the tape itself were periodic vertical discoloration lines (strips of darker brown followed by lighter brown). However, the yellow ones were mostly ok, except for one or two. I remember reading here or on tapeheads that there was a problem with the tape forumulation on this model, as many people experienced this problem even back in the day. I was disappointed, as they were pretty good in terms of sound quality.
These BASF tapes I remember from the early 1970's and they left a lot of brown gunk on tape heads and pinch rollers. They had a special series for the 1972 Munich Olympics and these were as bad. I don't recall them sticking but I stopped using them assuming the residue left behind was not good for my equipment. It's a pity really as they have a great retro look and feel in your attached picture.
It is a pity indeed. I ended up not using them at all, not even the yellow ones because I fear the tape could damage the heads in my units. In BASFs of this vintage, the security mechanism can also play a role in degrading the tape, if the cassette was used without removing it. I remember seeing a video on YouTube with a sealead FerroChrom cassette in which just fast-forwarding it shedded the entire oxide of the tape and left just the pastic base. The second one that was opened in the same video had its SM removed and did not have the problem.
We have a lot of old retired 3M Engineers living in the area, I was asking one of them about other brands of tapes and they mentioned that BASF was the standard back then. Those were the ones they'd study for ideas about new 3M Formulations.
I will clean my transport system, rewind and FF the tape.. and if that doesnt fix it, I toss it in the garbage.
I may have to join you. I have 10 Ferro Chrome in shrink wrap which I now view as potential junk. Fortunately they came as a job lot with 3 so called Walkman. I binned one, did a belt change on the real Walkman, sold it and got the Sanyo working as a garage Walkman. So one of those dream transactions that end up costing you nothing. If the BASF cassettes turn out to be stickers I can't complain I guess B
I'd heat them first before tossing, here's some info... http://www.josephson.com/bake_tape.html Even Wendy Carlos gets in on the fun, check out Clockwork Orange if you don't know who she is! http://www.wendycarlos.com/newsold.html#baketape
The sticking is caused by the breakdown in glue that binds the metal particles to the tape. On some tapes you will see a white gunk that gets on the heads. In my experience baking and lubing does not work permanently. This is a particular problem with the tape formula Used in pre recorded cassettes from polydor from the 80s. In my experience as soon as you here the tape squeak, record it to a new tape as it will eventually be lost for ever.
