tape

[antispatula]

So I'd rather not go to musiciansfriend every time I want more tape. I know old tapes will shed and mess up your machine, and will simply sound like crap. I'm an avid ebayer. I've never bought ANY of my recording stuff new,(besides denatured alcohol to clean heads, if that even counts...... ) it all comes from ebay or craigslist.

So I was wondering if there's any trick to knowing wether tape is good or not if I don't want to buy it new. Is it the date that matters most? What does everyone esle do when they need more tape?

 

[Herm]

If you are talking about tape for your R8 I just cant see any reason at all for buying used tape when brand new is $14.00 a roll for 457 which is what is recomended for your machine or 13.00 for 407 which will work great also.
When it gets to this price point for tape for your machine in my opinion if price is a problem 1 new roll of 457 is much better than taking a chance on maybe 5 rolls of used tape on ebay. Its just not worth the chance.

 

[antispatula]

hey, that's good advice, thanks a lot. I'm finally starting to get the r8, thanks to Reel Person. I don't have a snake, so I got creative and recorded into the r8 using a vcr (used an old star trek tape ) since it uses rca's. One question though: I've been using really old tape to test it. It sounds like a stone wheel is rolling slowly down a stone floor, that's the easiest way to put it it sounds all bumpy.....Is this normal with old tape?

 

[Beck]

Buying used tape is risky. You can buy tape on eBay, but it should be new and sealed. ¼” x 7” tape is so inexpensive there’s no compelling reason to look for used.

There are a lot of unscrupulous sellers on eBay. Once a tape is open and the seal is broken you don’t know for sure what that tape is, how old it is or how it’s been handled. It may be something other than the box says.

For 7” reels, Ampex/Quantegy and Maxell will be sealed on the outside – box wrapped in plastic. BASF/EMTEC is not sealed in plastic, but has a seal on the tape itself (holdown tape with numbers on it).

I see tape on eBay all the time that is listed as new, but is obviously used. Some sellers are ignorant and some are common thieves. There is also a lot of non-audio tape lately, especially since the tape scare last year. Open-reel tape was used for everything back in the day – data, video, scientific instrumentation, etc. Non of these are appropriate for audio.

These days I’m inclined to recommend buying new from a retailer, except when looking for a specific discontinued tape.

I’ve bought and sold tape on eBay, and you can still find deals especially when you’re looking at ½” and 1”… then you're saving some big bucks.