TapeandTape Opportunist thief

  • Thread starter Thread starter Beck
  • Start date Start date
Why dont we call the BBB? And if they dont do anything then we could call the police in his area to make them alert of what this menace to Anal-society is doing. Or too bad Ebay doesnt have a forum that you can post on certain sellers and give a detailed description on how their product is...
 
At least two people I know of, including me have contacted him over the years to make him aware of the errors in his listings. His reactions have ranged from "Screw you!" to "I know, I'll be sure to change it."

I sometimes post on craigslist, either looking for certain things (tape some time back) and also selling a few things (tape recently) and have been contacted by Bill on those 2 occasions. I won't go into details, but suffice to say that I've found him very disorganized and rather confused, especially in my last and most recent email exchange with him.
 
Well said again, Beck well said.

I know, I have heard the many and horrible experiences about TapeandTape here on this thread, and I have to agree with you, that if you have a continual distrust because of getting your chain yanked and maybe outright lied to constantly, or the many lame excuses made, then I can see why no one here who had really annoying and bad experience(s) from Bill would do business again with him.:cool:

I agree with you also Beck that he does mislead many people into believing that this tape is the same as that brand of tape and its the same bias etc. etc., I don't know if he is clueless, or trying to mislead, but again if you know what you are doing in this Hobby then you should already know what to look for in bias compatible tapes and not listen to "Bill" the so-called tape expert, he just sells tapes and that is all he does, of course he should never give false comparisons. bad Bill baaaad:eek:

Newbies should difinately watch out for Bill's comparison charts, but for his tape pricing you can at least afford to try out different kinds of tapes/model numbers and brands to see what works best for you on your machine.

I know I am becoming a little short with Bill for giving me another bad reel after he exchanged the first three bad reels. Even though I got a reel good deal from him( no pun intended) and bought many reels at$2.50 a reel in good condition.:(

But sometimes It is a waste of my time driving to his warehouse exchanging defective reels of tape, although that happens very little, unless of course I am already picking up some more of those 3m 996 tape and or the Zonal 818, 3m 986 reel tapes that I have had excellent results from their use. In case others don't live close though and many do not, shipping tape back and forth to Bill ain't worth it, no way!

But I say if the price is not the concern, and absolute quality is needed every time consistently without doubt, then everybody here should buy new tape from RMGI and support them or whoever now is selling new reel tape. And if you don't like the hassle of exchanging used tape because of defects from time to time.

On the other hand if we don't use and get good use out of the old classic brands of reel tapes, then they will eventually will have to be discarded and we would have not had a chance to hear them and to make some excellent recordings.

Who knows how long the new reel tape manufactures tapes will last. Time will tell???

But I say if it ain't broke yet, the old stock of reel tapes, then maybe we have a chance of it lasting 30 years or more??? Hopefully we can master or back up our reel tape recordings to DVD audio and or something like that, even though 24 bit audio still doesn't sound as good as reel to reel tape.:D
 
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The only stuff I've bought from Bill was a case of unopened pancakes of 1/4" 3M 996. They arrived finally in late August after an e-mail fiasco and all that. I've been through several kinds of tape, Ampex 373, 407, 456, and 20/20 whatever that is, all of which gummed up my decks until the motor couldn't turn. I can post videos on youtube. (I'm aware the newer 456 doesn't shed since they still use 1" at the space and science centre for their laser shows and it sounds great!)

I've actually talked to him on the phone too. He actually phoned me here in Canada after I left him a negative feedback on eBay. He did sound like the kind of guy I would expect to turn used analog stuff quickly.

As tempting as it seems to buy another box of tape from him, I think I have to bite my tongue and get it someplace else. I don't buy it just for myself up here, other people were waiting too.
 
"bought many reels at$2.50 a reel in good condition."

You should say real good condition, not reel.

Also, I didn't spend $2.50, I spent $230 USD when our Canadian dollar sucked hence why I was pissed.

The last new tape manufactor was Quantegy and they stopped manufactoring their excellent GP9 last year and the distributors are selling off remaining stock. After that we're all going to suck up to people like Bill if we're that desperate.
 
The last new tape manufactor was Quantegy and they stopped manufactoring their excellent GP9 last year and the distributors are selling off remaining stock. After that we're all going to suck up to people like Bill if we're that desperate.

No worries... we currently have two manufacturers making open reel tape; RMGI and ATR.

http://www.rmgi-usa.com/

http://www.atrtape.com/

And the new-old-stock Ampex/Quantegy seems to be endless, if you know what to look for.

I expect someone will eventually make another go with the Quantegy formulations, which include all the Ampex and 3M patents. The reorganized Quantegy didn’t go bust for lack of a market, but rather poor management and nonexistent PR.

:)
 
Oh wow. This is exciting news indeed. I actually had no idea these people exsisted. I'm familiar with EMTEC, but have you or anyone tried the ATR? I'm curious to know now.
 
ATR does not make 1/4" tape yet sorry.........

Oh wow. This is exciting news indeed. I actually had no idea these people exsisted. I'm familiar with EMTEC, but have you or anyone tried the ATR? I'm curious to know now.

Yes unfortunately, I would buy from ATR, only when I get a 1/2", 1" and 2" tape machine, but, they don't plan on selling any 1/4" reel tape any time soon. So.......a reel Bummer............sigh':rolleyes:
 
According to ATR, 1/4" is in the works, but I don't know when that will be. Hopefully it won't take as long as it did to get the current stuff rolling. I'll try it on my half-track just to say I did. Quantegy GP9 sounded great on my little 22-2 but I was afraid of too much wear and tear.

I would think anything that plays nice with GP9 or SM900 should do fine with the ATR stuff.

:)
 
I just bought some 1 inch 456 from tapeandtape (being new to this forum I hadn't seen this post). I haven't used it yet. What should I look out for?
 
I just bought some 1 inch 456 from tapeandtape (being new to this forum I hadn't seen this post). I haven't used it yet. What should I look out for?

What does it say on the box and tape? Ampex? Quantegy? What is the date code (usually on the spine of box)? It's a string of numbers such as "86058". This means it was made in '86, on the 58th day. Tell us more.
 
Yes unfortunately, I would buy from ATR, only when I get a 1/2", 1" and 2" tape machine, but, they don't plan on selling any 1/4" reel tape any time soon. So.......a reel Bummer............sigh':rolleyes:

Man, seriously. Stop saying reel when you mean REAL. Unless I'm the only one bothered by this I will shut up now.

Looking back at some old photos I have, we used 1/2" Quantegy 456 with great results. I have lots of Ampex 456... in the garbage.

TallDog: When you play it in your machine, only speaking from my experience it only takes about 2 minutes until you hear squealing either in your transport or through your speakers. Your tension arms will probably be black and gooey. Again it depends on which 456 it is and what the date code is like cjacek mentioned.
 
OK I've got three Quantagys 1999,2001 and 2002 and two Ampex with the codes both mysteriously scraped off. There was an abundance of NOS tape mentioned earlier in the thread. Any idea where it is?
 
OK I've got three Quantagys 1999,2001 and 2002 and two Ampex with the codes both mysteriously scraped off. There was an abundance of NOS tape mentioned earlier in the thread. Any idea where it is?

Well, if you know for a fact that it's Quantegy then it's fine but the 2 Ampex tapes, with the codes "scraped off", is indeed a mystery and I'd be very weary of using. See, the problem is that you can't be really sure (unless they're sealed), if in fact those tapes are Quantegy or Ampex or if the dates are accurate. Different tapes could have been wound on the reels or placed inside of other boxes.
 
Thanks. For now I guess I'll just cross my fingers and use the Quantagy ones. Which of the new tape companies tape is comparable to the 456 1 inch? I just had my deck aligned and calibrated about a week ago. BTW thanks for the advice.

Ken
 
Thanks. For now I guess I'll just cross my fingers and use the Quantagy ones. Which of the new tape companies tape is comparable to the 456 1 inch? I just had my deck aligned and calibrated about a week ago. BTW thanks for the advice.

Ken

Ken,

Are these one-pass or were they sealed new-old-stock? Very strange about the Ampex labels scratched off (More tapeandtape weirdness to take note of).

On the Ampex there should be a sticker on the box and affixed to the back of the metal reel. If they are both missing it's probably not an accident.

Also keep in mind if these were already open, so-called one-pass; you really can't be sure how old the tape is on the reels. The Quantegy may contain older ampex or something else. Likewise the Ampex reels could contain newer Quantegy and there is no way to know. Even if Bill didn't swap the tape, I can tell you from working in a commercial studio when tape was king, we bought a lot of tape in pancake form (no reel flanges) and put whatever flanges we had available. A lot of studios did. Studio vaults often contain a jumble of different reel and tape combinations and people lose track of what is what.

RMGI SM911 was made to be an Ampex 456 counterpart, but many like SM468 in the same role.

:)
 
Thanks. It is supposed one pass erased tape. The codes were sraped off both of the Ampex tapes. I'm just going to have to watch my deck. I paid $300 for the tape so I'd hate to take a loss.
 
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