Hello there! I need some help with my DD9 tape head. It seems to have some corrosion-like damage on the surface, which makes it feel rough when I run my finger over it. Do you know how I can clean it or if using an abrasive polish would work? I'm also considering getting a replacement head, so any suggestions here would be great either in sourcing an original or sourcing an equivalent quality head. Thanks again to all.
I would try polish first and see how much of a difference it makes. If it's just a thin layer of corrosion on the surface, polish will clean it nicely. However, if you can feel it being rough with your finger, it may be deeper and require lapping. It's really impossible to tell just by the description, a picture would be helpful.
Depends on what here means? @Valentin did work on my DC2 head, I recall it had to be re-lapped. You could also try to source another head, perhaps one of a (junk) DX100. Part numbers are different, should be close though.
@Emiel the head of your DC2 was re-lapped indeed. @LotharGores I do re-lapping on heads, but have not done that particular head type before as I have not seen this type to have wear. The lateral plastic tape guides need to be removed in order to lap it, don't know how or if they can be removed without breaking them. Also, given the head is much thinner than a standard one, there's not as much material which can be removed without altering the head gap significantly. As for replacement, there are many walkmans which have a similar looking head, some of them being amorphous. In practice there are a couple of things to look for: - the head must obviously have the same mounting and sit at the same height; - the pins on the back to which the flex cable connects to must have the same pinout and layout; - the inductance of the coils must be similar; - the DC resistance of the coils must be similar;
Thank you all for your feedback. In the end I re-lapped the head. It was a little nervy but in the end I got it done. I removed the lid and used 1500grid paper (stuck it to a small flat board) to remove the surface damage. Once done I ran a TypeI tape on auto reverse for 10 hours stopping it every 2 hours to clear/clean the head with IPA. The tape kind of served as a 20K grid polish rendering the head nice and shiny.
