[Dixielandjazz] Reel to Reel Playback Problems -- Tape Squeal

[Robert Newman]

A couple of days ago a listmate asked for advice about selecting the proper reel to reel tape deck  to solve his problems with his prized collection of reels that don't fast forward or rewind and make a squeaking sound when playing.    I don't have his posting, but the obvious answer is that his tapes are suffering from the dread incurable disease of TAPE SQUEAL, known for at least the last 35 years by all tapers.

I assume this may be opening a thread unfamiliar to audiophiles younger than 65.    However, to encapsulate the answer to his pain-wracked query, I offer these suggestions, the products of years of intimate association with highly technical empirical failure.

Throw away all of the tapes that are unplayable on any machine.   At this point you will be saving a lot of futile heartbreak.

Throw away any machine that will not play any of the tapes.     Some tapes may be playable.    Figure on no more than 30 percent playable but that's this week.    Next week it'll be 25 percent.

Tape Squeal is the result of old age (of the tape, not the machine or the operator).     The iron oxide layer on the tape deteriorates to the point that it becomes sticky and deposits black guck on the machine's heads.    The deposit is iron oxide powder.

People will say you can retrieve some of the precious recordings by "cooking" the tape reels in your wife's oven at 125 to 130 degrees F for 24 hours minimum.     Each time set 3 or 4 reels of tape on an empty aluminum reel in the oven.     After the day's cooking in the oven  let the reels cool to touch and then run them FF back and forth on the tape deck,  if they will.     If they won't,  don't bother to try any more squealers.   If they will run in the deck after cooking,  immediately copy the recordings onto cassettes or your digital possessions  because the remission of their condition is not permanent.    It's terminal.

Somebody else will suggest that instead of trying the ridiculous "cooking" process, you put a squealer in the tape deck and using cuetips you apply denatured alcohol to the oxide side of the tape as it is entering the tape deck from the full reel.    That actually works but you can imagine the hours you will have to devote to copying that precious material.

In conclusion, with great consideration give it some more thought.    Maybe all that tape isn't so valuable after all.     I don't miss my hundreds of reels either.    The CD's are a lot better and much more convenient.

Bob Newman