Timing tape? Is is just leader in plaid?

[ethyrvalve]

Hi all,
sorry if this has been answered elsewhere. nothing came up in the search.
I got some quantegy 1/2 white plastic timing tape. (I ordered leader tape, and this showed up instead.) I'm curious to know: what's the deal with this stuff and is there any problem with using it as leader?
thanks in advance

 

[Beck]

Yep, it's leader tape, but with timing marks. If it has plaid marks every 7.5 inches it's probably 3M 61W (Later sold by Quantegy).

 

[Orcinus]

I don't like that they call it "timing tape". This leads people to believe it can be used for adjusting the playback speeds of a deck, and it most certainly should not. TEAC/TASCAM procedures specify a playback of a 3150hz signal from tape and the use of a frequency counter to adjust the speed of a deck. Sure, you don't have to use 3150Hz, and certainly higher frequencies are more accurate (also more difficult to align to), but optical timings every second? I wouldn't trust it. That being said, I use Quantegy "timing tape" as leader on all my tapes (except stuff that already has leaders, like Maxell's tape)