Sometimes the small felt pressure pad in a cassette is faulty or has gone
altogether. This can lead to poor or no sound and even tape chewing. It pays
to check the pad is intact before playing. If it's missing the cassette
shouldnt be played until the pad is replaced.

I believe that mostly, cassettes didnt have Sticky Shed issues. A few did
deposit onto the heads.
The only cassettes I've encountered which fouled the head were some Ampex
and Denon and some unbranded types but there are probably others as well.
 It might be best to isolate which brands and types are causing the issue
and treat them as a separate case, rather than have them randomly mess
things up for subsequent tapes.

 The best way to clean the tape path is manually with cleaning fluid and Q
Tips, under a strong light and with good magnification if needed.
Unfortunately many later decks could be very difficult for manually cleaning
the tape path. Even the well respected Tascam 122 MkIII is very difficult
to clean the tape path without a special cassette tool to fool the machine
into operating for cleaning of the capstan and pinch roller.

Cheers,
Tim.






----- Original Message -----
From: "CJB" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2018 3:56 PM
Subject: [ARSCLIST] Sticky shed - clogged heads?


>I wonder if you guys (generic term) could advise me on the problem I
> am having. I am digitising hundreds of cassette tapes using a
> Behringer UCA202. These are from the 1970s and are Ferro, Sony,
> Scotch, Boots (own brand), BASF. Most are C120, some are C60.
>
> I'm using a brand new Pioneer dual cassette deck with auto reverse -
> in the hope of leaving it working unattended for a few hours at a
> time. .
>
> But the quality goes down, the level goes down, and the sound become
> muffled after about a few have gone though. I think that they are
> suffering from sticky-shed and clogging the heads.. Can I bake the
> cassettes to make them more playable. I've tried tape head cleaners
> but these do not really work.
>
> Thank you - Chris B.


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