From: cd6699@notformail.com   
      
   On Wed, 10 Dec 2025 21:58:21 +0000, liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid   
   (Liz Tuddenham) wrote:   
      
   >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.   
      
   I'm not seeing it for some reason. Can you give me the message ID?   
      
   >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.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)