Just edited my post as it was a Revox B77 that Alan did on PFM .
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I picked up an old turntable (301) from an auction recently but included in the lot were a few other bits including some nice tape faff items.
The splicing kit, (mostly unused) contains a BiB splicer, various coloured reels of leader tape, blades and a brush for applying the jointing glue. Presumably this was before adhesive splicing tape was a thing?
I like the handy tape length/duration reckoner too.
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Gear levers on audio equipment should be compulsory.
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Especially streaming devices.
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Rare Sony tc-263d tape transport
Cosham, Hampshire
](Rare Sony tc-263d tape transport | in Cosham, Hampshire | Gumtree)
Picked this up with a few other bits.
Powers up, but sadly nothing else.
Guessing maybe the belts have perished.
Shame as it looks nicer than most tandbergs I’ve seen.
Have you removed that Akai unit from the big cabinet yet?
The Tandberg may just be shagged/broken belt
I’ll take the back off and see if the belts are intact, perished etc.
Like the tip before commencing recording… 
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Of all the tape reels I’ve acquired over the past 3 years or so I’ve only had perhaps a couple with stickiness issues. Certain tape formulations that various manufacturers experimented with, could be hygroscopic. The coating can absorb moisture meaning that layers of tape stick together.
In its mildest form, when the tape plays it makes screeching, whistling noises as the layers are peeled apart. In it’s worst form, the coating gets left all over the heads and transport system. I haven’t had any that bad but I have had a couple of shriekers.
One is a nice Phillips recording of Quartet Italiano playing some late Beethoven string quartets.
I have this on both vinyl and CD but was very pleased to find the tape. It’s recorded on Ampex tape.(Ampex seem to have been one of the worst culprits for dicking about with their coatings) Today I decided to try baking it, to remove the moisture & hopefully rejuvenate it.
The Youtube advice seems to be to bake at 55C for several hours; anywhere from 4-24 has been recommended. I spent a while trying to set the smaller oven on our Rangemaster to stay at around the right temperature using an IR thermometer to check what it was doing. Eventually I seemed to be able to hold it at the right-ish temperature so I put the tape in and gave it 6 hours.
And it seems to have worked. The tape plays as it should with none of the screeching or whistling/whining it was doing before. I don’t know whether it’ll be a permanent fix but I gather you can do it again if need be.
Will have to try it on the other noisy one. Funnily enough, the older tapes I have (some from the late 50’s) don’t seem to suffer from the same issue. It is the newer ones where they were trying different coatings, presumably in an attempt to get background noise lower.
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Guy
Baking SSS Ampex tapes is only a temporary solution to allow you to duplicate the tape to new tape stock. The binder on these tapes was hygroscopic and absorbed water. There are some threads on tapeheads using Nufinish car polish as a fix - that’s not a permanent fix either and just gums up your tape heads and guides.
Richard Hess, who coordinates the Studer, MCI and Sony users groups on yahoo is one of the world’s experts on tape preservation. Here’s his page on SSS.
https://richardhess.com/notes/formats/magnetic-media/magnetic-tapes/analog-audio/degrading-tapes/
Good luck
Charlie
PS I would rebake the tape again and then duplicate this onto a new tape copy as well as a digital archive
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@murrayjohnson it seems to play all the others at correct speed just not your one.
Saying that, both players seem to playing different tracks on some tapes.
Think I’ll be cashing them in for a streamer.
Saying that, I might keep the tandberg as a nice ornament.
When you play the old 2track mono tapes you need to disconnect the Right channel output on a 4 track machine. I made up a lead with one phono plug (which I connect to the L channel output) which is wired to connect to 2 phono plugs that I connect to the amplifier for a dual mono output. Otherwise the R channel is trying to play the other track of the mono tape but in reverse.
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I am going to makeup tapes from various sources as opposed to purchasing prerecorded …Alan T is a master at this and I have picked up some interesting tips from him …Guys and Wayne’s prerecorded are a pleasure to listen too when I’m at the venues they attend or vice versa …
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