Richad, have you noticed any pattern of brands/types for cassettes needing baking? All of the ones
I've successfully baked and transferred were "duplicator tape" of unknown brand/type. One of those
cassettes was Tape 1 of a 2-tape set, and Tape 2 played just fine, so go figure! Those were circa
early 1990's mass-duped tapes out of Canada. The other tapes have been from my personal collection
and were cast-off duplicator tapes from a duplicating place in Westchester that went out of business
(was closed down for piracy) in the 1980s. I think the tapes are circa first half of the 80s, all
black-oxide, perhaps Agfa?
As for DATs needing baking and successfully transferring after baking, the only brand I've
encountered with this situation is TDK, and it seems to be all the TDK tapes I've come across.
The Scotch cassettes that get so wrinkled that they "outgrow" their housing didn't need baking, they
just got something like what happens to acetate tapes with bad vinegar syndrome. But those Scotch
tapes didn't smell like vinegar, and they definitely weren't acetate base. I have no idea what
causes that, but I encountered it on several Scotch brand C-120 tapes. Then there's the Memorex
tapes with the too-tight housing. I suspect that's just plastic warping and shape-shifting over
time, perhaps shrinking a little as it gets more brittle. The tape inside doesn't seem to
deteriorate.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard L. Hess" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2016 1:48 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] One more sticky-shed data point - Cassette tapes
> Hi, Lou,
>
> We are starting to see some cassettes that benefit from baking.
>
> Cassettes used thinner base film and mag coating plus very few (if any) were back-coated. This all
> contributes to less material to degrade to start with.
>
> We have had several reports here of digital tapes needing to be baked, and they have thinner mag
> coats.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Richard
>
>
>
> On 1/20/2016 2:36 PM, Lou Judson wrote:
>> Here’s a slightly offtopic question. I shared the post of Peters’ with an associate, with whom I
>> am involved in a restoration project involving cassttes tapes from the 70s through the 1990s. We
>> are wondering why audio cassettes are so rarely having sticky-shed problems. I know that has been
>> discussed occasionally here, but why are cassetes relatively immune?
>>
>> <L>
>> Lou Judson
>> Intuitive Audio
>> 415-883-2689
>>
>> On Jan 20, 2016, at 10:33 AM, lists <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>>> Hello all:
>>>
>>> Coming very late to this thread. I don't intend to talk here about Mr.
>>> Richardson's process but, in answer to Tom's post, I'll try to address some
>>> of the issues with "sticky shed".
>>
> --
> 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.
>
>
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