From: liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid   
      
   Cursitor Doom  wrote:   
      
   [...]   
   > He said, "Give the heads a good clean,   
   > then." I said, "They don't look dirty." He said, "Give 'em a good   
   > clean anyway and see if that fixes it." So I did (not having any faith   
   > it would help in the least, however). Nevertheless, full recording was   
   > instantly restored!   
      
   I asked if you had cleaned the heads right at the beginning of this   
   thread.  The tineiest of gaps between the head and the tape can have   
   quite drastic effects on reproduction and even worse ones on recording.   
      
   Another cause of those symptoms, which is sometimes discovered by   
   complete beginners, is having the tape twisted so they are trying to   
   record or play though the backing material.  Some tapes that have   
   'bootlaced' can have an entire twisted section in the middle of an   
   otherwise right-way-around tape.  I have also seen spillages due to   
   putting the spools on upside down, so they unwound under power instead   
   of winding up.   
      
   The most confusing decks of all are those with non-standard tape paths   
   and winding systems.  One Truvox deck ran the tape from right to left   
   and several early machines had anticlockwise takeup spools that wound   
   the tape oxide-outwards.   
      
      
   --   
   ~ Liz Tuddenham ~   
   (Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)   
   www.poppyrecords.co.uk   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)