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Sticky Tape

LoStrings

LoStrings

Active Member
I have a question regarding some older reel to reel tape I have had lying around awhile. I am not sure, but I believe it is Ampex 456 tape, with the black backing. My question is: it has become sticky and leaves a buildup on everythng it touches. It actually caused some squeaking in play mode. Is this a problem with black faced tape in general or is it because it is just old tape? I have some older tape that does not have the black backing and it works great...it records good and runs very smoothly.
 
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KentTeffeteller said:
Some tape has sticky shed issues, Ampex 456 being among the worst ever. Ampex 406 is another well known for sticky shed.
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Thanks for the information. I just noticed the sticky for sticky tape and read thru it. Now I understand what sticky shed can do to anything it touches.
 
Just had the problem,recorded on a radio shack 7 inch tape,hit rewind started than slow to a crawl.well crap my
Motor bad.well put an another tape on no problem. The shack tape slow rewind.so it does happen.so will store flat
Not on end , maybe that might help.
 
Greetings from RojoLand!

"…so will store flat - Not on end , maybe that might help." — That won't help the sticky-shed issue. That Radio Shack tape is probably ConcerTape, which is well-known for SSS (since it's reject Ampex tape for the most part). I had a reel of ConcerTape received brand-new around 1983 or '84, from a friend who used it just once to record some stuff for me. I played it back then, once. But in 2024 I tried to play it again, and found it was now doing an imitation of Scotch tape (the adhesive kind, not the recording kind!). So I sliced all that now-useless tape off the reel and binned it. Yes, I could have tried baking the tape, but it wasn't really worth the effort. The now-empty reel can be loaded up with fresh tape.

Take care,
—
J. E. Knox "The Victor Freak"
 
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