Leader Tape

[keithkarmann]

I have recorded about 20 tapes on my recently purchased Sony TC580. It has ESP which senses 8 seconds of silence at the end of the tape and then it auto reverses (can go backwards and forwards all day). I live in Thailand and do not have easy access to supplies so while I was waiting for a roll of leader tape from Zonal in the UK, I used all makes of leader tape to facilltate the use of the ESP, everything works fine apart from the odd problem with sticky tapes which are all now thrown away. But the ESP works great.
Then yesterday my leader tape arrived from Zonal and I spliced about 6 foot of yellow leader tape to one of the tapes I had recorded previously. With great anticipation I loaded the tape only to find that the leader tape was stopping the normal operation of the tape transport and the tape was just accumulating around the pinch roller. So I thought maybe all the transport mechanism needed a thorough clean and de-mag, I did this and the result was still the same. I had previously been playing the same tape the day before with no problems on the same machine and the auto reverse was working relying on blank sections at the end of the recording tape for the ESP. I have tried the same tape on my Akai auto reverse machine and it reverses manually (no silver tape at the ends). I have no doubt that the problem is with the Sony machine only.
I guess my question is: are there different types of leader tape, if so was I just lucky with all the other tapes and the many variety of leader tape I used. It seems like there is something lacking with the new Zonal yellow leader tape. Has anyone had similar problems. Regards Keith

 

[rob aylestone]

I always found leader tape far less likely to jam up than the real tape it was attached to, so I suspect you have a bad batch. It's possible it was poorly slit and is binding in the guides. If your other tape and leader doesn't bind, then don't use it.six feet of leader sounds a bit excessive to me, why are you using so much? I only ever used just enough to wrap a couple of turns, leaving the splice to the left of the heads?

 

[keithkarmann]

Esp

I always found leader tape far less likely to jam up than the real tape it was attached to, so I suspect you have a bad batch. It's possible it was poorly slit and is binding in the guides. If your other tape and leader doesn't bind, then don't use it.six feet of leader sounds a bit excessive to me, why are you using so much? I only ever used just enough to wrap a couple of turns, leaving the splice to the left of the heads?

Thanks for your reply. Normally I would not use six foot but with the ESP that needs 8 seconds of blank tape and if the ESP is a bit slow to react we will call it 10 seconds. I do not normally use 7.5 ips but if I did then it needs 75 inches of tape. So if I use 3.75 ips thats about 30-40 inches and a couple of wrap arounds then that is where the six foot comes from. The new leader tape appears to be the same width as the recording tape when I do the splice. Yes I can write if off and not use it even though it is alright on my other machines (I like to be able to use most tapes on most machines) but what do I replace it with. I do have another roll of leader tape in the UK and I will be picking that up in a few weeks time and that is from a different supplier so hopefully that will be ok. So I guess when I return to Thailand in about 5 weeks time I will try the new leader and if it is ok I will post on here. I also have about 50-60 tapes in the UK, some NOS and some used so I will have to go through all of them to get rid of the sticky shed ones before they go on the Sony. The other option I can try is like you said just have the minimum leader and I can have my 8 seconds at the end of the recording tape (a bit more calculating as the 8 seconds silence has to be in forward and reverse). I will give it a try later today. Thanks again.