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Reel to Reel Tape Thickness Guidance

J

JohnKay

New Member
All,

After many, many years in storage, I set up my Akai GX-255D, did some general maintenance and cleaning, and made some recordings for a New Year's Eve event. One of the few unrecorded tapes I had was Maxell UD 18-180. I know that we were advised against C-120's for cassettes, but I don't recall any caution against thin tapes for open reel.

Any thoughts or guidance on minimum thickness for open reel tapes?
 
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I don't think there would be an issue. The problem with cassettes was the power needed to haul 120 minutes of tape around on the take up reel. Your Akai should have plenty of power to keep the tape taut on the take up reel as the capstan/pinch roller pull it off the feed reel
 
I vote for 1.0 and 1.5 polyester base tapes. I have been using Maxell UD 50-60 which is a 1.5 mil tape. Recently I found some tape made by Audio Magnetics. It is a 1/2 mil tensilized polyester based tape that is very very thin. Upon rewinding this tape it snapped. I knew when I bought it that it was junk but I couldn't pass it up. 2 rolls for 50 cents LOL, still shrinked and never opened.
 
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