Sticky Shed Help Thread

Lt. Bob said:
so is ALL back coated tape sticky-shed?
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No, but very little non-backcoated tape has sticky-shed. So little that you would be hard pressed to find any. Albums released on open-reel tape by Ampex normally didn't use backcoated tape, so the tape posted by cjacek above like most commercial releases will not have SSS.
 
regarding SSS, restoration experts within the ARSC (Association for Recorded Sound Collections) have found that what was thought to be oxide binder break down is in reality back coat binder break down with the contamination transferring to the oxide of the next layer.
The back coating was cleaned or removed and the tapes played fine.
If you are trying to retrieve a tape with SSS and dont want to do the baking routine, try cleaning the back coating. Be careful not to use solvent that will also dissolve the oxide binder.. Do Not tholulene or Mek are basic solvents used in mixing the oxide binders.
There is ongoing study on this finding........... I'll keep you informed
d nelson ward
 
dnelsonward said:
regarding SSS, restoration experts within the ARSC (Association for Recorded Sound Collections) have found that what was thought to be oxide binder break down is in reality back coat binder break down with the contamination transferring to the oxide of the next layer.
The back coating was cleaned or removed and the tapes played fine.
If you are trying to retrieve a tape with SSS and dont want to do the baking routine, try cleaning the back coating. Be careful not to use solvent that will also dissolve the oxide binder.. Do Not tholulene or Mek are basic solvents used in mixing the oxide binders.
There is ongoing study on this finding........... I'll keep you informed
d nelson ward
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Thanks for your input. I'm familiar with the experiments by ARSC

Before baking was found to be the best remedy for SSS there were many methods tried before 3M patented baking with convection ovens.

Baths in high grade alcohol and other solvents was tried among other things. And while that would frequently strip off backcoating the primary effect it had was to remove moisture from the tape, which had a similar temporary drying effect like baking. But in the end baking was found to be the most complete and safest method for temporarily restoring afflicted tapes for transfer to a stable medium.

Make no mistake, true Sticky-Shed Syndrome involves hydrolysis (moisture absorption) of the polyurethane binder, which binds the pigment (oxide) together and holds it to the plastic film. This causes the oxide side of the tape to swell. Whatever effect the backcoating has on the oxide, it would not have that effect if the tape did not have an unstable binder in the first place.

The binder problem was fixed by 1995 for all backcoated tapes and some brands were fixed as early as 1992. Some tapes without backcoating also suffered from SSS

The ARSC has some problems with its methodology and terminology.

There are several ways different tapes can breakdown, but there is only one Sticky-Shed Syndrome as we’re talking about here.
 
Yeah...the SSS that I've always seen involves only the oxide side of the tape....not the backcoating.

I wonder if Nufinish would help in cleaning up tapes..... ;) :laughings:
 
miroslav said:
Yeah...the SSS that I've always seen involves only the oxide side of the tape....not the backcoating.

I wonder if Nufinish would help in cleaning up tapes..... ;) :laughings:
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In my Mass Communication courses, we still use tapes to record. When I imported one of my tapes, there were some audio drop-outs in my footage. This was definitely SSS. Just dumped ALL my cassettes (just to be extra careful this problem doesn't happen again) in a bucket of Nufinish and now they are drying off. Fingers crossed. :)
 
I had all my tape decks dipped in a 50 gallon buckets of Nufinish so they would be immune to tapes with SSS. Its like an inoculation, so to speak. I also use it as shower gel when I shower before an important transfer (as everyone should). It eliminates user error. :D
 
I put Nu Finish into a Febreeze bottle and sprayed it in the air all through out my house so that my tapes are exposed to it 24/7, even when recording.
 
You could put NuFinish into a Head & Shoulder bottle, it might prevent flaky shed?

Beck, I post a lot at Tapeheads.net. There tends to be more bum gouge floating over there,* but the NuFinish thing has a lot of followers. I'm not inclined to put car polish on my Ampex 456, but what in general is actually happening? People claim it "cures" (whether temporarily or not) SSS.

*Not including Pacific Stereo. I do have several Concept receivers and IMO the Pacific Stereo guy has a vacation home on Mt Olympus
 
Yep, lots of nonsense on Tapeheads regarding NuFinish. I’ve seen it, but I just don’t have the time to address it on other forums. Same with Gearslutz, which is about 75% incorrect on most topics. It’s all too much work. These days I’ve got all the social networking I can manage between two forums I frequent and facebook. So much more to do outside of cyberland. The Analog Only forum remains a little corner of sanity for those who stumble onto it. Not as active now days but about everything has been properly addressed here over the years.
 
more info

i have just spent 45 mins writing out a long comparision of zonal 675 and ampex 456,, pressedpost reply and lost it all stating i was not logged in ( i did do).
the up shot of it all,
my old ampex 456 is now unusable,
my old zonal 675 is perfect and dry as a bone,
there is a chap on ebay that sells 1" zonal 675 on a 10" reel in a box posted and delivered next day (uk) all in for £18 ! ! yep £18.
i have had 4 and they are perfect.
for £18 its worth a try,

some info from cranford...
675

"Matt backed standard play, exceptionally low print. Low modulation noise, wide dynamic range, hardwearing surface. Designed for music mastering, broadcast, and archival applications. 2500 feet on 10.5 inch NAB hub, 1200 feet on 7 inch spool and 600 feet on 5 inch spools. Equivalent to the former Ampex 478."

Zonal 675. Reel-to-Reel Tape. Used once and Wiped. 1" tape. | eBay
 
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Yep, very frustrating to lose a long post. I learned that the hard way long ago. On this site you have to check the box that says, "Remember me" or your session will time out after a while. Now days I usually write anything of length in MS Word or a text file just in case.

As for Zonal, yeah that's all good stuff and no sticky, but Zonal 700 is technically the equivalent to Ampex/Quantegy 456. 675 is more like BASF 468. As for buying used I normally don't because once a tape is open you don't really know what's on the reel. I might make an exception if it's someone I know and trust and he/she bought it new and can assure me it is indeed, "One pass." The term, "One Pass" is thrown around a bit loosely. Is it really one pass? In a perfect world it is, but in a perfect world you could also hand your wallet to a stranger on a street corner and ask him to hold it for you until you get back.
 
Tim, how about these? Don't know the date. Can you say from the graphics / box type if these are good?

00b0b_ij1QkfL33jb_600x450.jpg
 
There should be a date code on one of the edges of the box, Daniel, as well as on the back of the reel.

But from the box graphics alone, that looks like the last cosmetic design before Quantegy took over the branding.

Cheers! :)
 
Thanks Jeff! I'll ask the seller to have a closer look at the date code (he couldn't find it initially) and also where it was manufactured on the back of the box. He's local to me and only wants like 8 bucks per 1/2" tape.
 
Actually, upon closer magnified inspection of that pic, I'm going to suspect those reels are from the early 1990's and probably sticky shed prone.

What I was looking for was the edge labeling which was longer and wider on the early 90's stuff compared to the post 1996 stock which had shorter, thinner spine labels which are the same size as the Quantegy stuff that took over around 2003.

Older stuff is made in California, Newer in Alabama.

Beware! :)

Cheers! :)
 
cjacek said:
Tim, how about these? Don't know the date. Can you say from the graphics / box type if these are good?

View attachment 89397
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Sorry I didn't notice this post before. Yeah Jeff nailed it.

Remember the Ampex boxes with the label across the middle of the front the box like in your photo are still from the sticky years. Ampex changed the look so the label is across the bottom front about the time the formula was changed to fix the SSS problem. The box style was changed in late 1994. When Quantegy acquired Ampex magnetic tape division they kept the latest box style from Ampex. Though Quantegy eventally changed the color scheme to black and red, they kept the label along the bottom.
 
Blue Jinn said:
Beck,

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Tapeheads Forums
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TapeTape is to be avoided at all costs. Worst seller on the Internet. Sells the worst crap tape I've ever seen. Has several aliases on eBay, including tapeandtape. He's been nothing but trouble for years. Bad tape. Poor service. Orders get mixed up... he sends wrong tape. Double charges credit card and the list goes on. A cross between doesn't know what he's doing and just plain dishonest. Worse now than ever.
 
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