"Sticky Shed" with Ampex tapes

Peter Maydew

New member
Some of you with collections of old reel-to-reel tapes may have already come across this problem, and some may even know the solution. Apparently Ampex messed up their binder formulation in the mid to late seventies, the result being that it absorbs moisture over time eventually rendering the tape unplayable. However there is a way around this - my reference is Mike Rivers' article on the Josephson Microphones site: http://www.josephson.com/bake_tape.html

What concerns me, though, is that I've started finding this in later Ampex tapes, supposedly produced after 1984 when they started their more thorough incoming inspection. It seems a large collection of Ampex 457 on 7" reels may be affected. Has anybody else seen this?
 
Hello Peter,

Welcome to the bbs. Thanks for the heads-up. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt, wrote the recipe ;)

Here's a selection of threads passim...

https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?threadid=18342


https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?threadid=47621


https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?threadid=49155

It reallly works! I've restored a number of recordings thought to be lost for ever using the "4-hrs at 154 deg-F" method.

Have a nice day!

- Wil


Oh! here's another...

http://www.audio-restoration.com/baking.htm
 
Thanks for the welcome, Wil... I guess I should have used the search function first...

My real question was about the possibility of newer tapes being "infected", and having read through those links, the answer seems to be yes. :(

On the other hand, I have Scotch and Agfa tapes going back to 1974 which still play perfectly. Ho-hum.
 
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