I wish this thread had been around before I dumped all of the bad ones, as I might have tried some of the felt pad/head lubrication ideas. I can only imagine that the built-in lubrication, on various parts of the tapes, had gone bad. Some had it at the start, some the middle, and some near the end of the tape, but of course I was never surprised when it occurred near the end of long compilations. Not all of these tapes had problems in the same area either. It was really annoying as these would otherwise FF and FR perfectly with little if any noise, and I could hand spin them with virtually no resistance. While it worked great on some of the tapes a few were unsalvageable, and had to be discarded. I did end up tearing apart the shells of these troubled cassttes, and moved the tape to a better shell, with an extra large felt pad. It has really irritated me, as it mostly happened to some of the ones I wanted to save the most. I've had this problem recently as well, also while trying to transfer/archive tapes to cd. All down to the fact that industry have abandoned cycle and endurance testing to save a couple of pence, and meet their cost reduction targets. A damned shame but not a lot different to what some CD's have suffered over the years in the form of disc rot. I think, to be honest, unless their is a magical chemical cure, these cassettes are now useless. Light baking (and I mean light baking) does work for a couple of plays but it is definately not a safe or permanent fix. The shell liner sheets that are either side of the spools are made of materials similar to the tape itself and both appear to breakdown (go sticky) and cause resistance/friction right through the shell and tape path. I think this is down to the fact both the tape and shells used are very consistent and both deteriorate significantly in damp/humid conditions. It is very true (as mentioned earlier) that the EMI manufactured cassettes tend to be the worst. Well, I have to say I have tried everything to fix this problem (including light baking) but I am afraid the only way this issue will be resolved is for somebody in the scientific world to analyse the materials and come up with a chemical fix. Well I think the fault is entirely down to EMI quality control. By the end of that sentence, it had stopped mid way thru side 1. Also, these are historical items, and even if EMI did muck up the order of the Beatles albums (plus a copy of Queen's A Night Of The Opera I have!), it would be a shame to not have the original tapes intact and in working order.īut I have tried all the whacking, fast-forwarding and rewinding etc till the cows come home, and there appears no salvation for these cassettes! I am informed (on ) that baking the tapes is just a recipe for ruining them, and the deck playing them - it's not the same as a high grade studio baking the original 48 track masters of War of the Worlds, for example!Īs a last resort, as I type, I have turned the volume down, and am playing ANATO from start to finish, wobbles and all, to get it through the machine. The cassettes are moulded, rather than screwed anyway. I am a bit cack-handed, so don't want to transfer to new shells. The EMI's - whether early ones, such as my "Gold" Beatles cassettes, or my 80's XDR ones (which appear to have been recorded with a really healthy signal) just play fine for a bit (a few secs) then become fluttery, then gradually slow until the tape comes to a stand-still. All the recordings onto blank tapes I made in the 80's are good, as are my non EMI pre-recordeds. I have a NAD 613 cassette deck from the 90's - not had it too long - bought it from a second hand dealer near me who seems reputable enough. The OP is having the same problem as I have on every single pre recorded cassette I have from EMI bar a couple.
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