Newbie Reel To Reel Questions

[GaryJ73167]

Hi. I am new to the reel to reel world. Picked up a Pioneer RT-707 recently and love it. I have 2 (probably stupid) questions.

1. - How do i store blank reels I am not using. Do they have to be stored upright (like vinyl)? Or can I lay them down and stack them
2. - The RT-707 has a feature of auto reverse where it can play the 2nd side of the reel when side 1 is complete. All you need it sensing foil to trigger the auto reverse. This deck is in IMMACULATE condition (including the heads), so, will foil running across the heads cause any damage? To me, it just doesn't seem like a natural thing to be dragging foil across the heads.

As I said, I am new to this , so, any information I can get would be appreciated

 

[audiojones]

Store the reels upright so they don't bend and warp under the weight of a stack. Stacking is bad for the tape on the reels too (crushes the edges if not evenly wound).

The reversing foil does go on the recorded side of the tape for the RT-707 but it won't contact the heads because it will reverse before it gets to them. I will say though that this is one of the main things I absolutely do not like about the RT-707, and I really wish they had rethought the reverse sensor position before they put that deck into production (most machines require the foil to be on the back of the tape which is much more logical).

 

[MaxxVolume]

C`mon, let`s get serious here, guys....we`re talking about miniscule exposure time here....you have maybe one inch of reversing foil, running at 7 1/2 inches per second, which is literally a blink of an eye....

 

[audiojones]

C`mon, let`s get serious here, guys....we`re talking about miniscule exposure time here....you have maybe one inch of reversing foil, running at 7 1/2 inches per second, which is literally a blink of an eye....

That's not what I dislike about this design so much (although I really don't want ANY metalic foil scraping over the heads), it's the fact that I have over a dozen other machines (the majority of which are auto-reverse) and a very large tape library with reversing foil already applied to all of my tapes. None of them will work with the backwards Pioneer sensor, I have to go through and put another strip of foil on every tape (and I got a lotta frickin' tapes) to make a 707 or 909 work. I don't want to do that and I shouldn't have to do that.

For the record I'm a huge fan of all things Pioneer and I have enjoyed working on Pioneer equipment for many many years, but this design has always bothered me (and I'm going back to when these machines were still in production). Never understood why they went that way. It would have been very easy for them to split that impedance roller in half, install a brush ring and use it as a reversing sensor on the back side of the tape.