- Keep it clean: Playing
tapes is a pleasurable experience. Your tape deck's heads, guides, and
pinch roller(s) are on the front line of gently handling your valuable
tapes. One thing that can mess up the gentility of this process
is dirt. There's a degree of static built up, especially in desert
climates, on the deck as well as your tapes. The tape heads and guides
must be kept clean, not only for sonic reasons but to protect the tapes
you're playing. We've seen many cases where dirty heads and guides have
scored (scraped) lines along the length of the tape, and especially the
edges. It's important to keep these surfaces clean, for a tiny piece of
oxide or other dirt stuck to the heads or guides can do quite a bit of
irreversible damage to your precious tapes no matter how new or old
they are. In particular, keep in mind the edges of the tape guides
where the edges of the tape live must be kept clean. Many people use
unwaxed dental floss to clean these tiny corners. If
the edges of your tape are getting worn, you could have nasty tracking
problems, because it's actually the edges of the tape that guide it
through the tape path. And if these edges get wavy or scored, you could
have some major problems. Se strongly suggest using our CL-100
head and guide cleaner to clean up these surfaces and our RC-5 for cleaning the pinch roller when needed. Oh, and No Smoking.
- Check the condition of your
guides and heads: Tape guide parts like lifters are supposed to
be round, not showing a worn, flat spot. If there's a flat spot worn on
any of your tape guides where there's clearly an edge that can be grabbed by your finger nail, they should either be repaired or replaced
because the edges of these flat spots are very hard on tapes and can
damage them beyond repair, especially in rewind or fast forward play.
In some cases the guides can be turned in position revealing a new
surface. Sometimes they can be sleeved with a stainless steel outer
casing, and sometimes they have to be replaced. Some decks like a Revox
A77 have rotating guides which is a good idea. Some decks like a Nagra
have extremely hard surfaces, ruby in this case, and they are very
resistant to wear, although extremely expensive. Some decks have
very hard stainless steel guides, but others have very soft metal, even
brass which can wear more readily.
- Demagnetize your Tape Path: Tape
heads and guides tend to pick up magnetism from the tapes you're
playing and rewinding over time. This magnetism can slowly erase the
high frequencies on your tapes as well as create additional noise on
playback/record. The magnetic fields can actually get strong enough to
make proper calibration of your deck very difficult and make what
should be quiet recording quite hissy. A good head demagnetizer like
the RB Annis Han D Mag used on the entire tape path will eliminate
these magnetic fields. It takes a fairly powerful demagnetizer like the
Han D Mag to thoroughly erase these parts, as the small pencil type
units simply aren't strong enough to demagnetize steel parts.
- Make Sure Your Guides/Reel
Platters are Aligned Properly: The tape guides, as opposed to
the tape lifters which lift the tape away from the heads for wind
functions, are the one thing on the deck that determines where on the
tape heads the tape is going to travel. We've had so many cases where
these guides are forcing the tape vertically into position because the
reel platters are set too high or low on the tape deck. You might even
see tape shedding at the left hand guide's edges. With very thin tape
you might be able to see a distortion on one of the tape edges as the
tape approaches this first guide. After playing
through a tape, there should be equal distance from the top of the tape
pack to the inside of the flanges on BOTH sides of the reel. This will
show that the right side, or takeup, tape platter is at the proper
height with relation to the tape guides and heads. If you rewind a
tape, the same thing should happen on the left, or supply side, of the
deck. Ideally after playing through a tape and flipping it over to the
supply side to play the other side of the tape (assuming a 1/4 track
recording) the tape should leave the reel in exactly the proper
position to be lined up with the left hand guide without relying on
this guide to force the tape into proper vertical position.
- Just In Case: You may
want to consider using a UPS, or uninterruptable power supply, on your
open reel deck. Why? If you're rewinding a tape to play it and the
power goes off, even briefly, it can be a mess. You can possible ruin
your tapes depending on the transport.
- Storing Temps and Humdity: All
tapes, even video,
should be stored vertically and in a dry, cool environment.
Ideally for storage, keep them between 65 degrees to 69 degrees and a
relative humidity of 30% to 45%. For very long term archiving, store
your tapes ideally at around 50 degrees with a relative humidity of 20%
to 30%. One big thing here is temperature and humidity swing which is
very hard on recorded media. Humidity or temperature should not swing
by more than 10% over a 24 hour period.
- Never store your tapes horizontally: Always
store your tapes in the played condition vertically. In other words,
don't rewind your tapes and store them that way. You want to make sure
the layers of tape sit directly atop of one another with no edges
sticking out of the tape pack. These exposed edges are not only subject
to damage but might even begin to get wavy due to the stresses applied
to the tapes when used. This is especially critical when using thinner
tapes like 1 mil or less.
- Keep Away From Magnets: Do
not lean your tapes against the side of electronics, especially of all
things, loudspeakers. Keep away from transformers like those found in
flourescent fixtures for high intensity halogen lights.
- Erasing tapes: To save
on unnecessary wear on your deck and to obtain the quietest erased tape
possible, always use a good, high powered bulk tape eraser like the
Verity VS250 or a tabletop model. You can't get as quiet an erase using
the deck to begin with, so why subject the deck to unnecessary and
costly wear?
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