Yesterday I was transferring some 7-1/2ips 5" reel to reel tapes to my
computer using my Otari MX5050. One tape that had no brand markings on the
box started out ok but I began to hear some squealing noises coming from the
headstack and then the tape began to slow down and finally came to a stop
with capstan still turning trying to pull the tape through. I rewound the
tape and tried again, same thing happened. I removed the tape and cleaned
the heads and guides and tried again, no luck. I just could not play that
tape on the Otari. Since the tape was mono I put it on and old Sony consumer
deck and it played just fine. The tape was originally recorded by someone
else back in the 70's. It has a black back coating. There was one other tape
of the same type that did the same thing. Could this be a "sticky shedd"
problem that I've heard about before on this ng?
Geoley

"Geoley" wrote in message ...
Yesterday I was transferring some 7-1/2ips 5" reel to reel tapes to my
computer using my Otari MX5050. One tape that had no brand markings on the
box started out ok but I began to hear some squealing noises coming from the
headstack and then the tape began to slow down and finally came to a stop
with capstan still turning trying to pull the tape through. I rewound the
tape and tried again, same thing happened. I removed the tape and cleaned
the heads and guides and tried again, no luck. I just could not play that
tape on the Otari. Since the tape was mono I put it on and old Sony consumer
deck and it played just fine. The tape was originally recorded by someone
else back in the 70's. It has a black back coating. There was one other tape
of the same type that did the same thing. Could this be a "sticky shedd"
problem that I've heard about before on this ng?
Geoley

Sounds like the sticky shed problem. I have had some old tapes break
that I think were getting stretched from being played and maybe some
of the sticky shed problem. It was old cheap generic stock.

You might try fast forwarding and rewinding the tape fully on the old
sony to loosen some of the binding and then try it on the Otari.

Mike http://www.mmeproductions.com

Geoley wrote:
Yesterday I was transferring some 7-1/2ips 5" reel to reel tapes to my
computer using my Otari MX5050. One tape that had no brand markings on the
box started out ok but I began to hear some squealing noises coming from the
headstack and then the tape began to slow down and finally came to a stop
with capstan still turning trying to pull the tape through. I rewound the
tape and tried again, same thing happened. I removed the tape and cleaned
the heads and guides and tried again, no luck. I just could not play that
tape on the Otari. Since the tape was mono I put it on and old Sony consumer
deck and it played just fine. The tape was originally recorded by someone
else back in the 70's. It has a black back coating. There was one other tape
of the same type that did the same thing. Could this be a "sticky shedd"
problem that I've heard about before on this ng?

Yes, this is sticky shed, almost certainly.

Machines that are lighter on tape and have less surface area contacting
the head will be better at playing sticky tape. I can play stuff on the
ATR-100 that the 440 won't touch. Fast forwarding and rewinding may get
some of the gunk off if it's marginal and you don't want to be bothered
to bake it.
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Greetings,

Geoley wrote in message
...
Yesterday I was transferring some 7-1/2ips 5" reel to reel tapes to my
computer using my Otari MX5050. One tape that had no brand markings on the
box started out ok but I began to hear some squealing noises coming from
the
headstack and then the tape began to slow down and finally came to a stop
with capstan still turning trying to pull the tape through. I rewound the
tape and tried again, same thing happened. I removed the tape and cleaned
the heads and guides and tried again, no luck. I just could not play that
tape on the Otari. Since the tape was mono I put it on and old Sony
consumer
deck and it played just fine. The tape was originally recorded by someone
else back in the 70's. It has a black back coating. There was one other
tape
of the same type that did the same thing. Could this be a "sticky shedd"
problem that I've heard about before on this ng?
Geoley

Yep, certainly is Geoley. Just out of curiosity, was the tape you were
trying to play an Ampex 406/456? They weren't the only ones with sticky shed
though, (and someone will correct me if I'm wrong) but I'm sure some Scotch
stock was also affected. Can't think for the life of me which ones though,
226 or something?

Cheers.

Scott Dorsey wrote:

The Cableguy wrote:

Yep, certainly is Geoley. Just out of curiosity, was the tape you were
trying to play an Ampex 406/456? They weren't the only ones with sticky shed
though, (and someone will correct me if I'm wrong) but I'm sure some Scotch
stock was also affected. Can't think for the life of me which ones though,
226 or something?

Anything with the new binder was. Ampex instrumentation tapes, the
Capitol Audiotape mastering tapes, most of the Scotch types even down to
208.

Even the Agfa stuff went, although not as severely. Just about everyone
but the Japanese went to the new binder formulations at the same time because
they seemed so much more stable. Turns out they were not.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Old tapes will do this, and it ends up being a bummer on the machine as well,
because the stuff gets everywhere.