Jan,

It is difficult to avoid tapes unless you stick with the older ones. 
There are those that suffer from sticky shed syndrome, as you have 
described. They can stick to the heads until there is no movement at 
all. This is temporarily relieved by baking the tape at low temp and 
making a transfer. The problem returns with time. This is the tape 
equivalent issue of palmitic acid on lacquer records. You can clean the 
records to make a transfer, but it is a temporary fix. The chemical 
breakdown of the laminate returns.

Then, there are those tapes that need to be cooled down to refrigerator 
temperature to play. I have had this problem with Sony Pr-150.

It makes it hard to enjoy your collection. Period.

joe salerno


On 8/14/2012 6:07 PM, Jan Myren wrote:
> HI!
>
> Have by now started to play old tapes and found that the older the better. The tapes form the 60's & 70's of Agfa, Basf, Scotch etc plays just very fine.
> Some tapes from the 80's & 90's are however very troublesome, or just impossible to play. Among them are Ampex and Agfa. The tape itself acts like a "glue" and makes the whole tapemachine stop.
>
> Are there any list of such trouble tapes, so I can avoid those brands and types when purchasing tapes second hand?
>
> All the best
> jan
>

-- 
Joe Salerno