Powering up threaded R2R

[Carey Carlan]

By habit I always drop the tape away from the heads of a reel-to-reel
before powering on or off. Is that habit necessary? I'd think that an on-
pulse would erase the tape nearest the head.

[Scott Dorsey]

Carey Carlan > wrote:
>By habit I always drop the tape away from the heads of a reel-to-reel
>before powering on or off. Is that habit necessary? I'd think that an on-
>pulse would erase the tape nearest the head.

One of the hallmarks of a well-designed machine is that this is not
necessary.

It _was_ once necessary with some cheap consumer machines in the sixties.

It certainly doesn't hurt anything, though.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[William Sommerwerck]

Interesting point. Never thought of it.

I always turned the machine on before threading it, and ran the tape off
onto the reel before shutting off the machine. So the problem (if there is
one), never occurred.

[Carey Carlan]

"William Sommerwerck" > wrote in
:

> Interesting point. Never thought of it.
>
> I always turned the machine on before threading it, and ran the tape
> off onto the reel before shutting off the machine. So the problem (if
> there is one), never occurred.

I'm transferring old tapes to digital. I find myself swapping 1/2 track
and 1/4 track head assemblies back and forth. That requires powering off
the recorder.

[Ty Ford]

On Sun, 20 Aug 2006 17:06:30 -0400, Carey Carlan wrote
(in article >):

> By habit I always drop the tape away from the heads of a reel-to-reel
> before powering on or off. Is that habit necessary? I'd think that an on-
> pulse would erase the tape nearest the head.

I think Richard Nixon had a problem with that, or Rosemary Woods, one or the
other.

Regards,

Ty Ford



-- Ty Ford's equipment reviews, audio samples, rates and other audiocentric
stuff are at www.tyford.com

[[email protected]]

Carey Carlan wrote:
> By habit I always drop the tape away from the heads of a reel-to-reel
> before powering on or off. Is that habit necessary? I'd think that an on-
> pulse would erase the tape nearest the head.

Fostex A8 and A8LR , A2 and A4 machines would leave a loud click on
the tape if it weren't pulled from the heads before powering down.

To be safe, always run the tape off the mavchine when powering down.
It may seem like it takes a lotof time, but it is really the proper
way.

Richard Kuschel