Sticky shed on cassette... can i bake them?

Cassettes don't have sticky shed, per se. Some cause transport and shedding problems due to lubricant loss. I know of people treating squeaky cassettes with isopropyl alcohol… a very tedious process. I would not bake cassettes. That is not to say that someone hasn’t tried, but heat can make a cassette worse, if only by causing the center pad to disintegrate.

:)
 
Some of my older (mid 80's?) cassettes have developed a squeel/screech. It's in the signal, not the mechanical part of the cassette, as it comes out of the speakers.

In my research, I've discovered it is probably cause by particles being deposited on the head, then lifting back off.

Anyway... can a wax or other lubricant be applied to the head itself?

A few tapes are rare, and can't be found on LP or CD, and I simply want to get them transfered.

G :cool:
 
If the tapes have picked up stray magnetic particles, they would be part of the tape's sonic character. You could try cleaning the tape itself. Have you played them on different machines? It sounds more like head alignment to me… feedback or crosstalk issues. I have some very old cassettes from the 70's and have never had this sort of problem. Of course I put the anal in analog when it comes to maintaining tape machines. Maybe it paid off. ;)

Head lubricants were popular at one time but have fallen out of favor and/or are just plain unavailable due the demise of cassette tape as a major player.

There were some silicone-based products out there as late as the early 90’s. I’ve never used them myself.
 
Another help might be to try playing the tapes on one of the classic Nakamichi machines. I mean the ones with the dual capstans and the little pressure pad lifter. No other brand had this feature to my knowledge.

The pressure pad is a weakness of the original cassette design and amongst other things can increase "scrape flutter". The Naks push the pad out of the way and use tape tension between dual capstans to achieve tape contact on the head. Just like better reel to reel machines.

Of course the pressure pad itself may be faulty and the Nak eliminates it anyway.

Cant guarantee it would help but it might. I use such a Nak in my transfers, especially with older tapes. Sometimes I even totally remove the old pressure pad from the cassette but then it will only play on the Nak or a dual capstan machine.

The other thing that can help, along with playing on the Nak, is to rehouse the tape in a brand new quality shell. There are "C zero" shells available from duplication houses which have bare leaders sticking out, ready for you to splice your old tape's ends on. Then you can wind the tape into that cassette without ever having to dismantle the old or new housing.

You can also try and manually remove the tape pack although it can be a fiddle if you dont have steady hands. Harder if the case is welded, not screwed together. Do what's easiest for you.
If you need help there are people who do this work for a living. Richard Hess's website has more info.


Tim
 
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