Hello, Paul, Corey, and Jeff,

Thanks for all your replies! I welcome any additional input!

Paul, I believe she was using a ReVox PR99 for this particular playback, 
though there is also an A807 available.

Corey, I agree that the Last Factory products as well as Marie's 
isopropyl drip or my (and others') decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5) 
additional lubrication will all work for playback.

This, however, differs from "simple" squealing with the tape rolling off 
under its own weight. In this case as the tape is unspooled, the weight 
of the hanging tape is insufficient to immediately leave the pack, the 
underlying tape layer does hold onto the tape somewhat.

Jeff, I agree that it does sound similar to Scotch 201 syndrome but what 
initially put me off from that is it is a brown oxide tape in a 
Soundcraft box (though we are not certain it is Soundcraft, obviously).

What worries me most about this is that with normal tape pack stresses, 
this adhesion may be worse towards the hub and, at some point, as with 
201, may result in pull-outs. Scotch 201 for the casual reader is an 
early 1960s tape, the first in the Dynarange series of lower noise with 
higher output. It is a Standard Play (1200' on a 7-inch reel) tape with 
black mag coat, no back coat and an ACETATE base film. 202 and 203 were 
on a polyester base film and were standard play and long play (1800'), 
respectively.

I am still of a mind (as I wrote back in 2008 and before) that loss of 
lubricant has yet to be proven and that binder degradation (what I 
proposed we should generically call "soft binder syndrome"--which can 
have many manifestations including SSS and probably this) has been shown 
to be a culprit.

To return to this a bit, tapes that suffer what had commonly been called 
loss of lubricant (LoL) showed a typical full lubricant load under 
laboratory analysis. Other laboratory tests showed that the glass 
transition temperature of the coating had fallen to about 8°C which is 
why playing the tape at 4°C alleviated the squeal problem. HOWEVER, at 
least my concept of LoL has never been accompanied by the concept of the 
tape not rolling off cleanly under its own weight. The adhesion does 
speak to, well, some adhesive.

Though we did not discuss smell, we revisited the possibility of 
external contamination several times. Within the first few minutes I 
asked, "what vintage of Coca Cola do you think fell on the tape?" She 
indicated there was no evidence of any damage in this regard.

We did discuss the tape that Nathan Georgitis brought to one of my 
seminars a few years ago which I do not recall showing any significant 
signs of water damage, but had spent some time in an attic which 
apparently had open windows for an extended period and it squealed and 
suffered pullouts--fortunately mostly on the unrecorded track--but other 
than the pullouts, I don't recall an overall adhesion layer-to-layer. 
However, his tape was, I believe, polyester Melody, which was Scotch's 
answer to Shamrock--an off-brand like Irish/Orr/Ampex's Shamrock which 
were rejects from the main brand's line of tape.

So, there are two questions in my mind:
(1) How to spool the tape off without risking damage from pull-outs.
http://richardhess.com/notes/2006/05/26/binder-adhesion-to-back-of-next-layer/

As noted in that 2006 blog post, cold dry storage for an extended period 
may help as well as very slow unwinding as pioneered at the British 
Library under the late Peter Copeland.

(2) How to play the tape without squealing. These blog posts all discuss 
the problem and several solutions (pun intended)
http://richardhess.com/notes/2006/07/12/the-beginning-of-3m-175-squeal/
http://richardhess.com/notes/2007/11/08/success-with-squealing-shamrock-031-tape/
http://richardhess.com/notes/2012/10/01/playing-a-squealing-reel-of-sony-pr-150-tape-using-d5/
http://richardhess.com/notes/2006/03/09/wet-playing-of-reel-tapes-with-loss-of-lubricant-a-guest-article-by-marie-oconnell/

This is a comprehensive list of degrading tapes
http://richardhess.com/notes/formats/magnetic-media/magnetic-tapes/analog-audio/degrading-tapes/

My tape degradation paper from 2008 is where the concept of cold 
playback is best developed
http://www.richardhess.com/tape/history/HESS_Tape_Degradation_ARSC_Journal_39-2.pdf

I hope that helps and I hope to be actually getting my hands on this 
tape in the next month or so.

Cheers,

Richard

On 2013-08-20 2:45 AM, Paul Stamler wrote:
> One possibly-relevant question: what machine are you using to play the
> tape?

On 2013-08-20 1:15 AM, Corey Bailey wrote:> As you know, I use Last Factory
> As you know, I use Last Factory
> lubricant and have had good results with both acetate backed tape and
> magnetic film. I suspect that Marie O'Connels method would work as
> well. One could apply the alcohol with an eye dropper instead of
> Marie’s setup for a one-off transfer.

On 2013-08-20 2:39 AM, Jeff Willens wrote:> Hi Richard,
> Do you know if there is any odd smell to the tape / tape box? Could some
> foreign substance other than water have come in contact with the tape or
> box?
>
> Beyond that, it sounds to me like it's a loss of lubricant in the
> acetate tape, and/or a variation of the "201 syndrome", since that's
> what the symptoms most resemble. Does the pulling get worse the further
> in you wind it?

Richard L. Hess                   email: [log in to unmask] Aurora, 
Ontario, Canada                             647 479 2800 
http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm Quality tape transfers -- 
even from hard-to-play tapes.