Sticky/Shred Tape syndrome Ampex- Damage to player

[joe4fun]

Hi All
I have recently gotten into reels, and have been having tons of fun recording both records and disks to the Pioneer RT-707 I picked up. Fairly successful, a few bad used tapes here and there. I bought 7 new unopened Ampex R1800 tapes off an ebay sale. I went to use it last night. Huge mistake. I just put it on, set up the CD player and let it go, went in the other room. Came back to check. Not only did it not record ANYTHING, but further inspection this morning in better light showed gum on the capstan, and a lot of what looked like oxide flaked on the shelf under the unit. I took the tape off, cleaned the capstan, rollers, and heads thoroughly. Then I demagnatized the heads. Retest shows the unit will play a tape but not record. Bad news. Anyone who could help shed light on any fixes? This would be much appreciated.
Joe

 

[AAA3330]

Seeing that you've cleaned the heads, I just can't see how a bad tape could cause the deck's record function to stop working. I may be wrong, but I'm thinking that perhaps something else unrelated to the tape may have went wrong with the machine and it may be a coincidence that you're noticing it at the same time that a bad tape was used.:scratch2:

 

[goldear]

Sticky tape might well damage your motors or belts on some machines. But it will not harm your record circuitry, other than covering your record-head with a bubble-gum like substance.

Have you ever recapped your machine? Electrolytic caps don't last forever, and the 707 is approaching 40 years old now. It really should have undergone a complete recapping 10 years ago.

 

[joe4fun]

Goldear- Thanks for the response. I cannot be sure, I will have to check on the recapping. The guy I bought it from was very technical with the tape units and other items as well- And I thought he said he did that, but I will go back and check. So now, after all my cleaning, etc. I have the right channel working on record. The unit will playback other tapes fine on both channels. I am thinking of taking the faceplate off, and taking a closer look at both the record and other heads, and also the associated record, play, pause, ff and rew buttons. Will let you know how that comes out I am looking at it tonight.

joe

 

[joe4fun]

Inspector
Thanks for your note. I am going to take a closer look, but I would agree- it seems a bit much to have gunk stopping the record mechanism after cleaning it. But I have one channel working, and have decided to take the faceplate off and peek. I have to replace the counter belt anyway. Will let you guys know how it goes.

joe

 

[Blue Shadow]

If you have one channel back after a second cleaning, clean some more. Get a magnifying glass and check for absolute cleanliness of the heads. An extremely small chunk of dirt makes a VERY big different in frequency response and a small chunk can keep a good bit of signal from reaching the tape.

 

[joe4fun]

Blue Shadow, appreciate ur response. I opened the unit up, cleaned everything I could get to, concentrating on the heads. Was not able to replace the counter belt, but I got it put back together after lubing a few things..More tests reveal the left channel still not recording properly, although if I turn the balance knob on the amp to left and crank it a little I hear something faint. I had to disconnect everything, so I checked all the connections also. More cleaning tomorrow is all I can think of.....joe

 

[tapetech]

Like others have said, the record head is likely still dirty. Use a magnifier and strong light to inspect. If need be, use a strong solvent to clean (like acetone).

If the record head is spotless and you still have a record channel out, then try cleaning the record mode switches at the top of the front panel. While you are at it, clean all of those switches along the top. They often cause problems when dirty. Use Deoxit.

 

[BANDWIDTH]

Like others have said, the record head is likely still dirty. Use a magnifier and strong light to inspect. If need be, use a strong solvent to clean (like acetone).

If the record head is spotless and you still have a record channel out, then try cleaning the record mode switches at the top of the front panel. While you are at it, clean all of those switches along the top. They often cause problems when dirty. Use Deoxit.

Agree! If this all went down just like you said - you are missing some dirt. Perhaps the tension on the transport was also very severe (I've seen SSS stop my X-2000R on FF dead in its tracks!) and may have "moved" one of the heads! Especially if somebody "monkeyed" with the head alignment in the past. The RT-XXX machines are quite accessible to this via the head cover!

 

[joe4fun]

Sticky Tape mess cleanup/Ampex tape

Thanks for the comments on this issue. As a number of folks suggested, I went back and cleaned again this morning, using a cloth this time rather than a q tip. Lo and behold, it looks like so far- both channels are working. It must have been there was gum or dirt I was not seeing. Every time I had pulled a q tip out of there, there had been dirt on it. It seemed to never end. Will post more when I confirm by actually recording a whole tape with it.....:thmbsp:

 

[Blue Shadow]

Every time I had pulled a q tip out of there, there had been dirt on it. It seemed to never end.

The deck is not clean until the q-tip comes out completely clean. The reason the gap in a tape head is thousandths of an inch is because that is what is needed to record or play high frequencies. If you ANY dirt, moving the tape one thousandth of an inch away from the head...very low signal will be recorded on the tape.

Sticky Shed is a disease that needs to be contained on the tape well away from the machine as it requires hours of cleaning to get the machine back to the way it was before the SS tape was used.

Search sticky shed syndrome and list those tapes. Use them with great caution if at all.

Glad you are getting your machine back in the game.

 

[joe4fun]

Blue Shadow,
I just taped a couple of nice tapes using Rush, and they came out great.
Yes, I had cleaned the heads a number of times. I think the dirty q tip was sometimes due to cleaning a roller, or capstan at the end, but you are correct- If you are sticking to the heads with it, it does need to come out clean. At the end of the day the q tips worked ok, but the soft cloth covers a larger and perhaps different surface of the heads, and can be used to buff vigorously rather than what I was able to do with a q tip. Definitely- Lesson learned- No more Ampex tapes. Or others I see in those sticky tape articles. These were sealed, and not used, but obviously time got to them. I may use a couple of reels as blank reels or use a couple of the boxes, but those Ampex are going straight to the garbage. I really have no use for something that damages equipment. It takes too much time, care and money to put a system of components together the way you want it to have unnecessary damage.
Good conversation and advice...Appreciate it. Joe

 

[eddisc]

joe4fun: "don't throw the baby out with the bath water''. NOT ALL Ampex is bad. And what IS happens to be well documented. KNOW which is which and if you find you have some old stock found at a garage sale in another box BUT killer tunes on it... you can always bake the tape - NOT THAT TOUGH to do. I've done dozens - mostly 10". See:
http://www.wendycarlos.com/bake a tape/baketape.html

there's MUCH more if you do a search for the opening words...

 

[Edriz]

Personally, I stay away from any brand I know that has SSS. I will not take chances. Joe, whenever I clean the heads on either my R2R or cassette, I use a small LED flashlight and magnifying glass. Makes it so much easier to see what your doing. Especially when heads on R2Rs are upside down and your on your knees looking up at them. Dont know what you use for cleaning but US Recorders has some of the best head and rubber cleaner I ever used. Check them out sometime.

 

[joe4fun]

Eddisc Thanks for your interest. I realize its not all Ampex, just certain years and models that have the problem. And I had a couple of Ampex given to me when I bought the unit, I liked them. However, now I am in control of what goes into my baby, and I am going to stick with 2 brands chiefly, and possibly a 3rd. While taping all this music I bought both Maxell UD tape, and TDK both the LX and Audua types which I like very well. Also, and surprising to me- I found that Radio Shack tapes that I got with the unit also had held up well, and gave surprising highs. And I am reading the baking tapes article, but...I don't see myself doing this. joe