In reference to the Ampex tape. The tape to look out for is the Ampex 456.
All other versions of the Ampex tape did not suffer from the shredding problem anywhere near as much.
If the tape is the 456 type UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES put it through your recorder before baking as you will have a very good chance of loosing everything that is on the tape.
If you are going to undertake the baking process yourself make sure that you undertake a lot of reading on the subject because temperature and time are quite critical, I would also ensure that the spool/s are metal rather than plastic --- although all 456 tapes were originally shipped on metal spools.
Once baked, play the tape (preferably only once) fairly soon after the tape has cooled. In other words, have everything ready to go and remember that 456 generally required the recorder to be biased for a level 6dB higher than other tapes, so if not re-biasing check the level. If the tape was professionally recorded (but I doubt that in 1988 an 8-track 1/2" would have been recorded in a professional studio), it should have a series of "line-up" tones recorded at the head of the tape and these should have been recorded at the recorder's 0Vu mark.
If the tape has been stored tail out (and it should have been to prevent print-through), I would suggest that the tape be re-wound by the tape going straight from spool to spool rather than going across the heads and through all the tape guides --- you will probably have to manually hold various levers, cover end of tape sensors, etc to make the spools go into the fast forward/rewind mode. This will help with the shedding as the tape will not be touching anything. While doing this be sure not to touch the oxide side of the tape or it could shed.
Re the baking process, I would suggest that rather than trying to do it yourself, that you find an organisation or someone who has had considerable experience doing this --- you only have one bite of the cherry !!!!!
As a bit of history, 456 tape when released was considered the best tape to use by most studios, BUT because of its shedding problem there have been thousands of tapes and recorded material, lost forever. BUT, in 1988 I would be surprised if the recording was actually done on 456.
I have just done a quick search and found the following which might be of interest:
Ampex filed U.S. Patent 5,236,790[16] for a baking process ("A typical temperature used is 54 °C (129 °F) and a typical time is 16 hours") to attempt to recover such tapes, allowing them to be played once more and the recordings transferred to new media. The problems have been reported on tapes of type 406/407, 456/457, 2020/373, but mainly the 456 tape.
Hope the above helps in your quest.
David
