Last thing heard before tape splice broke
 

I was listening to Wings "London Town" this morning and a strange thing
happened. The song was at it's end and Paul was singing the last "I've
Had Enough" and then the tape splice broke! I guess it was fateful
that the tape broke at that precise moment. Anyone else have an
experience like that?


CTV

Last thing heard before tape splice broke
 

On 7 Nov 2005 10:31:57 -0800, "Cartrivision1" wrote:

I was listening to Wings "London Town" this morning and a strange thing
happened. The song was at it's end and Paul was singing the last "I've
Had Enough" and then the tape splice broke! I guess it was fateful
that the tape broke at that precise moment. Anyone else have an
experience like that? snip

As I've said many times, you should never play an 8 track tape without
first opening it up, changing the pads out for a Win-Gib®, doing a
proper double sided splice using real splicing tape (not Scotch tape)
and cleaning the cartridge interior. The adhesive on the sensing foil
is virtually gone by this age, so new splices are mandatory. After
doing so, I've never had such a failure, but yes...I've had exactly
this happen, more often than not, on carts I didn't "service" before
the first play.

Some people find these failures of 8 tracks to be part of their
"charm;" I find them to be a royal pain in the ass. It's getting to
the point to where I have to invest a lot of time and skill in
refurbishing these things just to hear them, and since my time's worth
money, it comes down to whether it's worth it or not.

dB

Last thing heard before tape splice broke
 

Well, consider that I only pay $.25 or $.50 at the most for each
8-track, there is always the possibility that they will either be
non-functioning or will break at the first tape splice. I guess it is
the cost of investing even a quarter on this long dead format. I could
see going through that much trouble as you described if it was a really
rare title, or a quad tape, but for titles like "Frampton Comes Alive",
or the Wings album I mentioned, it is not like I cannot get the
material elsewhere, and in better condition I might add!



CTV

Last thing heard before tape splice broke
 

On 7 Nov 2005 23:02:04 -0800, "Cartrivision1" wrote:

Well, consider that I only pay $.25 or $.50 at the most for each
8-track, there is always the possibility that they will either be
non-functioning or will break at the first tape splice. I guess it is
the cost of investing even a quarter on this long dead format. I could
see going through that much trouble as you described if it was a really
rare title, or a quad tape, but for titles like "Frampton Comes Alive",
or the Wings album I mentioned, it is not like I cannot get the
material elsewhere, and in better condition I might add! snip

Very true. However, I've spent a lot of time freshening up these
things to make them as playable as possible, and have gotten a good
taste of what happens to 8 tracks as they age. One thing's for
sure...as with anything else, mileage = degradation, and no
maintenance = quicker degradation. Due to its skinny tracks, like
cassette, carts are very susceptable to partial erasure due to
magnetized heads and guides, and a full 30% of the carts I've gotten
in have enough degradation of the imposed signal that they're
musically worthless. However, some are sonically very good, better
than the format ever had a reputation for, of course. It's been an
interesting project, but as you say, it's a lot of work to maintain
these things, and other formats are generally of better quality.

dB

Last thing heard before tape splice broke
 

sometimes it's hard to resist trying out the tape and seeing if the
original splice will hold up...all I can say is, don't wander too far
from the deck, as that's when nasty tape jams occur-

Last thing heard before tape splice broke
 

On Tue, 08 Nov 2005 01:02:44 -0800, DeserTBoB
wrote:

Very true. However snip

Toilet flushed 6 times this morning. Noodles and his pals must be off
their Thorazine!

Yoo hoo....Noodles...don't bother posting...we cannot SEE you!

dB

Last thing heard before tape splice broke
 

sometimes it's hard to resist trying out the tape and seeing if the
original splice will hold up
Indeed. Or at least to get to the sensing tape splice if your
machine is without fast forward.
...all I can say is, don't wander too far
from the deck, as that's when nasty tape jams occur-
Course the doorbell usually rings just before that happens and
you are off dealing with some canvassing goober while tape starts piling up.
I love using an xacto knife and steel straightedges, so I will continue
to make home-made pads. I actually used a sort of trippin effort in a Zep II
cart that I have had since it was released. The cart seemed pretty intent on
shattering, so I yanked out the old one and cut a fat piece of foam (covered
with tape though) and stuck it in place. Works fine. Or as fine as an 8
track needs to work.
WWW

Last thing heard before tape splice broke
 

AWESOME COOL ! You gotta keep an open mind with 8's, and be willing to
experiment.

Some guys are such collector purists that they get tunnel vision and
will only use what came in the tape to begin with- my logic is, that
original stuff failed quite often- so feel free to adapt it !

there is so much graphite on the back of those tapes, you could never
rub it all off with a home made pad. Think about it- if the graphite
is that loose- you're better off sweeping it off with the pad and
cleaning it, rather than letting it get stuck to the front of the play
side of the tape, and end up on the head and capstan.

Radio Shack actually made an 8-track tape cleaner, that did the same
thing a home made pad does.