"Professionally Baked" Quantegy 456? LOL Too Funny Not to Share!

[Beck]

Seller says this is "Professionally Baked" Quantegy 1/2 456. Well, there's nothing professional about it because any professional would know that Quantegy doesn't have to be baked. Only Ampex branded before 1995 would need baking. Nothing made by Quantegy needs baking and you are likely to cause harm to the new formulation that doesn't need baking by baking it.

Is it really that hard for people to figure this out? I easily keep all this knowledge in my head... right off the top of my head. WTF is it that this is so hard for people to grasp? Drugs and/or alcohol? The information that started in this forum, and has since been copied and pasted to numerous other forums over the years, is all anyone needs and it's so freakin simple you have to laugh! On the bright side, if baking did damage to the tape at least the buyer has a nice empty reel for a fairly reasonable price.



Quantegy 456 Grand Master 1 2" Reel to Reel Tape Professionally Baked | eBay

 

[bobreel]

Sorry Beck, I have to disagree with you. I bought Quantegy 478 off ebay, 1/4" on 7" reels. Initially it seemed OK, then about 6 months ago I tried to play it. Oh dear, SSS with a vengeance. I also bought some Quategy406 at the same time and this also exhibits SSS. These tapes have been stored in a cool domestic environment along with TDK Adua, Maxell, Zonal, Emtec 468 and Rmg Lpr35 made by Pyral in France.

The Quantegy tapes were NOS and recorded Ok when first used within 6 months of purchase. None of my other tapes have given me any trouble, so I can only conclude the old Ampex problem is still an issue with the binder. I haven't tried baking them as they are on plastic reels, although this method did work on some old Ampex 456 on metal reels from way back.https://homerecording.com/bbs/images/smilies/frown.gif

 

[Beck]

Sorry Beck, I have to disagree with you.

First of all I'm flattered that this post inspired you to make your first post in the five years you've been a member. Welcome to the forum! Welcome... but... you will have to be around for a while before we know who you are and whether you know anything about SSS or anything else. You're an unknown and could even be another members alt. Stranger things have happened here.

Anyway, don't be sorry for me. Be sorry for you because whoever you are you're just another one of the unfortunates who can't figure this stuff out... can't navigate the tape minefield and thus you're easy pickin's for unscrupulous eBay sellers. There's a lot of gotchas out there, but here are a couple of the most common ones...

- You bought tape that was used, perhaps listed as, "One Pass," or presented as new but was not sealed and thus the tape in the box was not what the label said it was. This happens a lot because when larger studios started dumping their used tape for resale all bets were off as to what was actually on the reel no matter what the box said. Unscrupulous sellers will also knowingly put old Ampex tape onto Quantegy reels.

- You bought sealed tape and have a legitimate bad run of tape, but it's not sticky shed and can't be fixed with baking. This is a very rare scenario, but possible.

The above are the only two possibilities. If not you will be the first person on the planet to have sticky-shed Quantegy. Congratulations!!!

By the way, what I didn't mention at the top of this thread is that people should not buy used tape at all from an unknown untrusted source. A known trusted source would be a personal friend who can assure you he bought the tape new and sealed and it is what the box says it is.

A couple other observations...

- If you don't already know that you can bake tape on plastic reels with no problem, then you haven't been at this for very long.

- RMGI hasn't been made in France for very long, so if you had these tapes stored at the same time with your Quantegy, then you haven't had the Quantegy for very long. This makes the first scenario above more likely... that you unknowingly bought Ampex tape on a Quantegy reel that was baked right before the seller sold it to you. That would explain why it seemed ok within the first six months. I've even seen sellers reseal the inner plastic bag and I called them on it, reported it to eBay and got my money back.

But please elaborate... correct me where you think I'm mistaken, and be as detailed as possible. That way I can get a better picture of who you are and what you know.

And well damn! Sorry this ebay item didn't get a chuckle. I guess you had to be there. Another funny thing... I always picture this sort of eBay seller living in a trailer with beer cans strewn about and piles of dirty laundry and dirty dishes too. They may or may not have a hound dog or two. Don't know why I picture that... I just do. How do you picture them?

 

[miroslav]

Maybe "professional baking" means there was some sugar-n-spice involved....sweet with a touch of cinnamon.

I can picture reels of tape baking in a convection oven along with a pan of danish. The sugar molecules act as fresh binder for the tape, and the cinnamon gives it a wonderful smell.

 

[Farview]

I always thought that you baked the tapes to retrieve the audio off of them and then threw the reels away. I never thought that baking made them ok to use. Wtf would anybody buy former sticky shed tapes in the first place?

 

[Bubba po]

Sounds half-baked to me.

Ba-doom, tish.