What is the best way to clean tape heads today? I don't have a tap cleaner from days gone by so I was wondering what the good folks here use. I just purchased a Panasonic RX-7700 and the heads look dirty so I want to clean them before using any tapes.

Thank-you for your input!!!

Use cotton with light alcohol to clean heads, capstan and pinch roller.
Avoid any sharp objet near the heads or capstan.

quote:

Originally posted by SUCCESS:
Use cotton with light alcohol to clean heads, capstan and pinch roller.
Avoid any sharp objet near the heads or capstan.

That's what I did and yep, they were pretty dirty. Thanks for the tip!!!

If the head is a bit worn-out, it's more difficult to get it cleaned at first time.
All instruction books I've read use the same approach for head cleaning.
Use a cotton swab to reach the "gap" area (where the tape touchs the head).
If the head is a bit worn out, this area won't clean because it is a bit depressed in relation with the head body.

I think I have that problem and it is affecting the tape sound. When I play a pre-reorded tap the sound is fine, but when I play a tape that I recorded for instance (on a Maxell XLII-S), the sound is muffled. Tape speed is fine but when I initially engage play, the sound is great then, almost immediately, it sounds very muffled. That's why I am trying to clean the heads. I wonder if the playback head needs to be replaced.

If these tapes you recorded were from a different machine it sounds like possibly head adjustment may be needed (azymuth).
Should be a little hole near the tape pb/rec head small enough to fit a 'jewellers' screwdriver into.

Although it may be that the machine those other tapes were recorded on is itself slightly out of adjustment.

Bit of trial and error really....

Yeah ... that's another think ... It isn't related to head cleaning ....
What you describe is caused by a head missalignment (like 2steppa said).
The second cause is the pinch roller, but if it were the pinch the boombox would "eat" tapes.
I've seen one or two tape recorders where the pinch caused this effect without eating tapes ... it was very curious.
If I lift the pinch pushing the pause button a little (until you get some kind of fast playback) the sound was very clear. Also at the start sounded fine like you said.

What do you mean a tape which you recorded? Do you mean on the same deck or another deck?

I have had success. The tapes I was trying to use were recorded over 10 years ago on a high end tape deck but the tapes have been in storage pretty much that whole time. Reading the different solutions proposed, I used a combination of what most of you have said: I cleaned the heads which definitely helped, but it seems the main culprit was the soft felt that "pushes" the tape against the playback head. I gently nudged this on a couple tapes and played them back and voila, playback was restored and the sound was as expected. I am going to re-record the music and am hoping that a new recording will sound even better.

Thank-you everyone for your advice!!!!