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Tape Playback on reel-to-reel is backward

corpblues

corpblues

AK Member
Excited to listen to a copy of Neil Young - After The Gold Rush that I bought on ebay. I immediately noticed that the tape seemed to be on the reel backwards as with the label facing out, the tape was handing off the wrong side of the reel. Took me a while but I fixed it.

I mounted the primary reel on the left side of the deck and let the tape come off the right instead of left side of the primary reel.
Attached the tape to the take up reel normally.
Obviously can't play the tape with this path as the two reels are spinning different directions than normal.
So I manually spun the entire tape onto the take up reel, which loaded it correctly.
Once it was on the take up reel correctly, I attached the loose end of the tape to the primary reel properly and , rewound.
All is good again.

Not sure how someone did this to the tape, they must have loaded the tape incorrectly somehow.

Posting this as perhaps it can help someone else that gets a tape that has been loaded onto its reel incorrectly.
 
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corpblues said:
Excited to listen to a copy of Neil Young - After The Gold Rush that I bought on ebay. I immediately noticed that the tape seemed to be on the reel backwards as with the label facing out, the tape was handing off the wrong side of the reel. Took me a while but I fixed it.

I mounted the primary reel on the left side of the deck and let the tape come off the right instead of left side of the primary reel.
Attached the tape to the take up reel normally.
Obviously can't play the tape with this path as the two reels are spinning different directions than normal.
So I manually spun the entire tape onto the take up reel, which loaded it correctly.
Once it was on the take up reel correctly, I attached the loose end of the tape to the primary reel properly and , rewound.
All is good again.

Not sure how someone did this to the tape, they must have loaded the tape incorrectly somehow.

Posting this as perhaps it can help someone else that gets a tape that has been loaded onto its reel incorrectly.
Click to expand...
Buying tapes from those auction sites sometimes leads to this, where the tape is "inside out/backwards" on the reel. It can present a head-scratcher for a few minutes, `til you get it figured out. Years ago, I got into a habit with all "new" tapes that came into my possession....after play-checking the tape, I always install a white leader at the start of the tape, and a red one at the tail end. A quick glance will verify the tape`s orientation on the reel.
 
There are a lot of people selling these things on eBay who have absolutely no clue about open reel tape. I once picked up what was supposed to be a full two track 7 1/2 ips jazz tape and it turned out to be the operating instructions for a tape recorder!
 
Okay, holy thread resurrection.

I just had this problem. Testing 7" tapes, one was playing backwards both channels, so not the 2 track on 4 track problem. So I put the reel on the supply side flipped over so that the tape comes off in a clockwise direction. I'm a noob, having only gotten my machine a couple of weeks ago but am surprised that the deck can cope with this weird arrangement. How did this happen?
 
Aha! I found it. Suddenly ten minutes in, the play direction reversed. I manually wound the tape back and found a splice! So they put the tapes back wrong
 
Wait. Super weird. Remember what I said about the tape coming off the supply reel clockwise. Somehow it's now anticlockwise ie 'normal' This is before I fix the splicing.

Edit: I've fixed the splicing. Put the supply reel backwards so that it's running clockwise again. The music playsin the correct direction for about 10 seconds then a loop of tape drops from the supply side and untwists the supply spool, so that it's now going anticlockwise, playing music in a forward direction. Crazy. I guess I need to throw this tape out after.
 
After listening to it. I'm 'screening' these old tapes that came with the machine that I bought. I always half hope there's some new recording of my favourite singers hiding in these. No luck yet. I have a recording of a radio play from BBC Radio 4 that seems to have only been broadcast once according to the directors webpage. Probably because it wasn't great :)
 
chobochobo said:
I'm 'screening' these old tapes that came with the machine that I bought. I always half hope there's some new recording of my favourite singers hiding in these.
Click to expand...

Yes-this is a lot of fun. I have only picked up a few recordings that were well done and of genres that I favor. Consequently, I have many tapes marked "ok to wipe". Out of about 200 tapes, most fall into that category.....
 
Was it loaded on the reel tail out? Put it on the take up side and rewind the tape to another reel on the supply side then play it forward.
 
Part of it seemed to be due to the splicing error, then there seemed to be some 'looping' of the tape on itself ie the tape would come off the left side and then switch to the right. I'm not sure how that happened. Anyway, tape will be thrown out.
 
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