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Hello , Some pertinent questions: What vintage is the tape itself ? The age of the recording isn't terribly indicative of its age. Do you know the manufacturer and tape number I.E. Ampex, Scotch , 206, 207 ? When the tape is pulled away from the heads and guides of the playback machine , is there a gummy residue deposited on the heads and guides ? And does the tape itself have a gummy deposit on the spot at which the tape will no longer pass through the machine? If the answer is yes to any of these questions, and if the tape is polyester base ,as opposed to acetate, you have a situation refered to as Sticky Shead Syndrome. ( SSS) This occurs mostly in 1970's vintage polyester based tape. Again, it will not occur in acetate based tape. The tape can be treated with a heating process which will cause the binder which has leached out from under the oxide( the recording medium ) to be driven back under the oxide, thereby allowing the tape to be played without problems. - At least most of the time. The process is not permanent, however as the problem will return in time. The binder cannnot be cleaned from the tape. Heating is at present the only way to address the problem. Sincerely, Robert Hodge Sr. Engineer Belfer Audio Archive Syracuse University 315-443-7971 >>> [log in to unmask] 6/15/2005 9:40:08 AM >>> I hope that someone might have a solution for this problem. This morning I am having my intern copy oral history tapes to make service copies for research and to send off for transcription and while she was dubbing one of the tapes in the high speed dubbing machine it stopped. At that point the copy rewound but the original wouldn't budge. I pulled it out of the machine and tried to manually advance or reverse the tape but it is completely stuck as if all of the tape melted together at that one spot. The tape will rewind but it will not go past that one spot so half of the tape is usable and the other half is just stuck. Any suggestions on how to salvage this tape? Is it salvageable? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Christina J. Hostetter Archivist Eric Friedheim Library at The National Press Club 529 14th Street, NW Washington, DC 20045 Tel: 202-662-7523 Fax: 202-879-6725 http://www.press.org/library/archives ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~