Sticky Shed Help Thread

  • Thread starter Thread starter Beck
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ha! the smell test ...

I think Scotch 202/203 smell like crayons mixed with rat piss, while 206 smells more like straight crayons! And 456 smells kind of like elmer's glue. can't really say i can pinpoint 911 or 468 smell yet ... it's more subtle !
 
Yeah...I know about the tape smells.

What's neat about my MX-80, is that unlike the Fostex G16 or my Otari 5050 which are vertically mounted in a rack...the MX80 has the reels on top, so after it warms up for a couple of hours when I'm tracking, the heat rising from the deck makes the tape give off even more aroma than when it's juts sitting in its box.

I know the smell of 499 real well now, as I've been using it on the MX80, but yeah, I know the smell of 911 too. I have a storage locker with mostly 911 and 468 in there...and when I open it, the smell hits me. :D
 
i've read numerous posts about it and tried it but failed miserably, seems very impractical and lengthy process, if someone has had successful results i'll be interested on the details.
 
fgonza2 said:
i've read numerous posts about it and tried it but failed miserably, seems very impractical and lengthy process, if someone has had successful results i'll be interested on the details.
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Yes...there was a thread here awhile back, and apart from the one person promoting it....most people here thought it was a dumb idea.
I agree....it seemed like a pretty messy and impractical process, and there was ZERO scientific proof that it really worked or lasted and didn't in any way damage tape or transports/heads.

You can go over to the Tapeheads website...that's where a few of the more "enthusiastic" people hang and talk about it as though it's a miracle cure. What's obviously amusing to me, is that they are all just dealing with 1/4" tape in a home playback SOP for the most part....I didn't see anyone there who actually records sessions or who uses other tape formats.
Imagine trying to apply that stuff to a reel of 2" tape! :laughings:
 
fgonza2 said:
i've read numerous posts about it and tried it but failed miserably, seems very impractical and lengthy process, if someone has had successful results i'll be interested on the details.
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Oh man… please no!!! I cannot believe the number of people that actually fell for the Nu-Finish thing. My theory is that it started as a joke, or from the same sick minds that every once in a while announce that Tascam is going to begin making the 388 again. I wish it where not so, but there are people lurking in these forums that would actually laugh themselves to sleep at night with great satisfaction at the thought of analog enthusiasts knee deep in Nu-Finish, all over them and their tape.

The bottom line is that it doesn’t work, and even if it did, the cost in time alone would make buying new tape the better option by far. Nu-Finish has a lubricant in it, which would initially give the impression of success since it would help the tape glide through the tape path better. But in the final analysis it actually hurts. So it’s not just a question of whether it will work or not, and if it doesn’t work, no harm done. Because a lot of harm can be done. For one thing it doesn’t fix the problem, which is an unstable binder full of moisture that pushes the tape away from the heads. Plus you introduce a host of chemicals that are anything but innocuous. It can damage the heads, the pinch roller and the rubber on the tach roller over time. It also puts a fine layer of wax and lubricants between the tape and the tape heads, which only exacerbates what the Sticky-shed is already doing to minimize tape to head contact. The Nu-Finish solution for bad tape is pure Urban legend. Stay far, far away!

The only proven, albeit temporary fix for sticky-shed is baking with a convection oven or food dehydrator. And that’s only to recover audio that’s already on the tape. Sticky-shed tape should never be used for new recordings, although many people now erroneously believe they can bake tape for reuse. It doesn’t help that a couple eBay sellers announce on their used tape listings that the tape should be baked before use. LOL I’ve sent them messages to try to clue them in to no avail.

Now there's another mystery I’d like to get to the bottom of… how can people with the IQ of a carrot and the vocabulary of a 4-year-old even figure out how to list on eBay? :confused: :)
 
Beck said:
...the cost in time alone would make buying new tape the better option by far.
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Not just the cost...but reading through some of the posts of those who tried it...it's a *messy* application process, trying to smear that crap on an entire reel of tape is about as dumb as you can get, not to mention, it takes a decent amount of effort and time.

Heck yeah...just go buy a fresh reel of tape and get back to the music.
If you have some old tapes with music on them that you want to salvage...bake them, make a transfer...and move on.
 
i have a 1" STL calibration tape that came with my MS16, so i had hopes of restoring that somehow so i could calibrate it with it...
 
Miro, I thought you knew better.


Don't you know it's Nu Finish that cures SSS?

:D

EDIT: Well now I feel like an idiot after that joke has already been mentioned. :facepalm:


Guess I'm late to the party. LOL!
 
I'd better correct myself. The BASF SM911 with some shedding looks pre-90's. The 90's SM900 we've got is all fine.

Good to know that shedding from BASF tapes is a rare thing.
 
For better or worse,...

About 10 years ago, I happened upon a couple awesome and cheap sources of new reel tape of many sorts. I bought dozens of reels of 1/4" tape on 7" reels, some 1/4" on 10" reels and a fair amount of 1/2" tape, across the board for $1 reel brand new on clearance. I'll spare you the details what and why. This came with copious amounts of 3M 226, 966 & some 986, Quantegy 456, 457. Somewhere in there I managed to buy Quantegy 031 media 1/4" 1200' on 7" reels for $2.99/reel. I have many cases of tape of many sorts.

Bout 2005, I made a recorder purchase that came with a boatload of 3m 996 1" tape, no kidding about 80 rolls of one pass used tape, maybe a reel or two in there unused.

On top of that issue my initial archive recordings on 1/2" 8-track since the early 80s were done exclusively to sticky era 456. Like so many others out there. Fortunately, I'm no great musician or producer, but those recordings are special to me nonetheless.

I am now married to the issue of baking tape. Though I've purchased the dehydrator a long time ago I've not done it yet, but I'm certain it's in my future. Not all my tape is sticky shed era, but a fair amount is. However, in practice I've had issues with sticky shed very little, but only a few verified cases.

If I were to have a time when I wanted to sell any of this new or one pass tape, I'd do so without reservation. I might test a sample or simply bake the reel as a pre sales standard. At this point I'm not sure. New reel tape is out there, tho' it's way more expensive now than it used to be. I don't think that people who sell used tape should be absolutely villified. I'm not on board with how some tape I've seen was listed, some sellers seem not to know, but if it were me I'd be an honest seller about it. For now to me it's a minor issue, but I've been fond of R/R recording since way back. In which case I don't have a problem thinking of tape "baking" as just another maintenance effort. My 2c. YMMV.

:spank::eek:;)
 
unfortunately baking is a temporary solution. Use it to transfer over to salvage what's on those, but baking is not something that will "cure" the tape so it shouldn't be used for recording new material
 
fgonza2 said:
unfortunately baking is a temporary solution. Use it to transfer over to salvage what's on those, but baking is not something that will "cure" the tape so it shouldn't be used for recording new material
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Yes exactly. Unfortunately the misconception that one can bake tape for reuse has taken off, partly because of eBay sellers claiming so. When I first started this thread I was hoping to help people grasp the little details, but it seems a lot harder for some than it should be. I wish I could bottle something people could drink and it imparts the knowledge. Or maybe put it in a fruit on a tree of knowledge they could eat. ;)

A Reel Person said:
I don't think that people who sell used tape should be absolutely villified.
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Yeah, I agree with you Dave. Most do it innocently enough. I will only list the sellers that I've tried to educate and they obviously sell bad tape again and again with full knowledge of the harm they're doing... like tapeandtape, who by the way has lost his selling privileges on eBay and is now on his third or fourth eBay account doing the same thing.

Just to reiterate, the problem with buying any used tape is that once the seal is broken you don't really know what kind of tape is on the reel. Some sellers offer tape from large studio lots, but even well organized studios lose track of what kind of tape is on a reel because they would buy pancakes and put it on various reels. So my recommendation is, never buy used tape. Sealed NOS (New Old Stock) no matter how old is as good as new... if people follow the guidelines laid out in this thread to avoid the bad binder (Sticky-Shed) era.

I'm sure you have plenty of good tape there... just by accident because you have so much. ;) Just be careful. There are different phases of Sticky-shed. If you're ever unfortunate enough to try a reel in the advanced stages where it leaves a clear glue-like substance all over the tape path you'll be cleaning that deck for a week. Scotch 226 is the worst when it comes to that. On the other hand the stuff in the early stages of sticky-shed may be the worst because the sound is degraded without any obvious physical signs of a problem.

eBay is still one of the best sources for tape of all kinds at good prices, but the devil is in the details, so I'm sure it will always be confusing for most people.
 
Good some reels of half inch 3M 996 on my hands for 17 dollars/12 pounds each. There's some mixed opinions whether this tape has a shedding problem. Any way of identifying the bad rolls from the good ones? Unlike Ampex 456 there's a whole lot of confusion on this subject.

Would it be fine on a Fostex G16C? The owner have used it on a B16.
 
WarmJetGuitar said:
Good some reels of half inch 3M 996 on my hands for 17 dollars/12 pounds each. There's some mixed opinions whether this tape has a shedding problem. Any way of identifying the bad rolls from the good ones? Unlike Ampex 456 there's a whole lot of confusion on this subject.

Would it be fine on a Fostex G16C? The owner have used it on a B16.
Click to expand...

Assuming the unit is working ok, tapes don't care what machine they are used on. The only way to tell about sticky shed, is to try to play each reel. Anything the squeals should be baked.
 
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