Chirping Cassettes- WTF??

willhowl

Well-Known Member
Greetings,all. I have searched the forums for the following terms- chirping,squealing,squeaking- and found nothing. I pick up old tapes quite often and find a lot that have these problems.

The noise is both mechanical- ie. in the case- and also shows up sometimes in the signal.The two problems don't always go together, but often do.

Any thoughts? I have sometimes "fixed" mechanical squeakers by gently twisting, or torqueing the plastic case by twisting it by hand- again,very gently. I may hear a little "pop", and then,it works!!Sometimes not,also!!!

Thanks for your responses..............willhowl:thmbsp:
 
Google Is Your Friend

Google "dry tape squeal". You'll get a bunch of hits, some with various methods to fix it.

Doug
 
Hey, willhowl!!
I see that you've discovered my secret!! Either that or it's no secret at all...

I too have found that if I twist the tape until I hear a pop the chirping sound stops. I believe that the chirp noise is made by the wheels touching the side of the plastic case as they are spinning. This would be an easy fix if the tapes came apart and a fella could give a shot of graphite to the wheels; but since few of them do have the screws for disassembly I think your method and mine is about that you can do.

My question has always been whether the added drag caused by sticking wheels will put undo pressure on the tape deck's motor and cause it to fail...
 
Chirpers.....

Thanks, guys, for your responses. I did Google DTSqueal, and will peruse the hits later-gotta go to work now. pilotputz- somebody showed me this trick a long time ago.... It's not recommended if you happen to be an arm-wrestling champion!!!!!

Anyone else, please hop on in! later.......willhowl:thmbsp:
 
The problem is caused by the rollers in the corners of the cassette shell. The roller shafts sometimes corrode a bit, or need a tiny bit of lub (tiny tiny, almost dry). If you can unscrew the shell, you can fix the problem. Torquing the shell is done at you own risk.

(Don't touch the tape, or leave any loose lube anywhere in the shell. such is not good for the tape)

Enjoy,
Rich P
 
I also have a "chirpping" sound while rolling a cassette. I'll try the above mentions. Lube? and a Q Tip? Ok...let's try this. The belt drive quite well thought. Cassette does not get eaten...hmm?
 
I had the same problem with Memorex cassettes circa 1990-1991 on a late 80's Realistic console. My solution was to twist the cassettes using both hands until they 'cracked' in both directions. It worked.
 
I was shown Cassette Chiropractic a long time ago. It does work typically.

Nice way of putting it. "Cassette Chiropractic" I remember having to administer some "Chiropractic" assistance to some tapes. Generally, I recall it was mostly on the cheaper tapes that suffered from such issues.
I was probably around 8 or 9 years when i started to record stuff on cassettes. I use to "borrow" some tape from my Dad's collection and tape over them... lol ! I had no money to buy my own ok.
When my pocket money started flowing I did start a collection of Basf tapes, my favourites at the time, especially the Chrom Dioxid tapes. These sounded great !
 
Nice way of putting it. "Cassette Chiropractic" I remember having to administer some "Chiropractic" assistance to some tapes. Generally, I recall it was mostly on the cheaper tapes that suffered from such issues.
I was probably around 8 or 9 years when i started to record stuff on cassettes. I use to "borrow" some tape from my Dad's collection and tape over them... lol ! I had no money to buy my own ok.
When my pocket money started flowing I did start a collection of Basf tapes, my favourites at the time, especially the Chrom Dioxid tapes. These sounded great !
I love my old BASF chrome tapes!
 
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