rollei35guy
Super Member
I had my first experience with the 'sticky shred syndrome' last night. This has been covered in some other posts on AK but not, to my knowledge, in a dedicated thread on the subject.
There were certain tape formulations made by Ampex and a few others with a back coating that over time would turn to goo. The tape will literally stick together causing slow playback and generally gumming up the tape path on the recorder.
When I dug out my Tandberg TD20a se I had some old Ampex 456 and 406 from years gone by. After playing some samples of older, non-back coated, with excellent results i tried the 456.
Big mistake. It coated the heads in just a few minutes of play and started leaving goo on the capstan and elsewhere. Also the tape began do drag. Would not rewind either. So I cut the tape and pulled it off the reel by hand.
The original reel was a 10.5" with removable hub so I was able to take the sides off. The tape was 'clumped' together in bands that are nearly solid. I can bang them on the wall or table! The reel of 406 was in similar condition and I just took the reel apart and pulled the tape off in clumps.
Moral of the story is if you are new to the world of tape or a 'born again' R2R'er, be careful out there. That thrift store find or eBay score might end up slimeing your prized tape deck! As best I can tell this was not limited to the 406/456 Ampex tapes and affected some others as well. It is also not an issue with back coating per-se.
An internet search for 'sticky shred syndrome' or 'Ampex 456' yields many results. Additionally there is a forum called tapeproject.com that has good information.
Here are a few links I have found:
http://richardhess.com/notes/2009/1...es-of-ampex-456-a-guest-article-by-gary-galo/
http://www.tapeproject.com/smf/index.php/topic,595.15.html
http://www.audioasylum.com/scripts/t.pl?f=tape&m=5985
(Edit added 1/16/2010)
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=247520
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/sho....php?p=2976967
There were certain tape formulations made by Ampex and a few others with a back coating that over time would turn to goo. The tape will literally stick together causing slow playback and generally gumming up the tape path on the recorder.
When I dug out my Tandberg TD20a se I had some old Ampex 456 and 406 from years gone by. After playing some samples of older, non-back coated, with excellent results i tried the 456.
Big mistake. It coated the heads in just a few minutes of play and started leaving goo on the capstan and elsewhere. Also the tape began do drag. Would not rewind either. So I cut the tape and pulled it off the reel by hand.
The original reel was a 10.5" with removable hub so I was able to take the sides off. The tape was 'clumped' together in bands that are nearly solid. I can bang them on the wall or table! The reel of 406 was in similar condition and I just took the reel apart and pulled the tape off in clumps.
Moral of the story is if you are new to the world of tape or a 'born again' R2R'er, be careful out there. That thrift store find or eBay score might end up slimeing your prized tape deck! As best I can tell this was not limited to the 406/456 Ampex tapes and affected some others as well. It is also not an issue with back coating per-se.
An internet search for 'sticky shred syndrome' or 'Ampex 456' yields many results. Additionally there is a forum called tapeproject.com that has good information.
Here are a few links I have found:
http://richardhess.com/notes/2009/1...es-of-ampex-456-a-guest-article-by-gary-galo/
http://www.tapeproject.com/smf/index.php/topic,595.15.html
http://www.audioasylum.com/scripts/t.pl?f=tape&m=5985
(Edit added 1/16/2010)
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=247520
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/sho....php?p=2976967
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