Tapes buckling ?

Legacy_user

Today, my wife bought herself a radio/cd player/tape player for the kitchen. It cost about £60. She selected this one simply because it plays tapes, of which she has many.

One by one she started playing them. Some sounded strange and my opinion was that they had become stretched, others buckled in the machine.

My guess is that these tapes which are possibly 30/40 yrs old, should be dumped and the machine returned from whence it came, (argos).

She has decided to keep half a dozen hoping I have the time to convert them (I have a machine that will do that) to my laptop and then burn a disc. All time consuming but I'll have a go.

Would you think that tapes this old would be useless by now?

aeb_2

I've been having a clear out on Ebay. I have sold 43 cassette tapes so far dating from the '70s.

Only one buyer has said it didn't work and I have had to refund. Of course I don't know how the buyers use them. They might just be copying straight onto a disc so only playing them once, I don't know.

S0litaire

All you might need to fast forward and rewind the tape once or twice. The tape can stick together causing it to stretch when playing

The tape player might also be "too new" and the rollers that press the tape against the head are to sticky and tight causing the tape to stick and get tangled up.

If the tapes are so old you might be better looking at the "bay of Pirates" ^_~ (wink wink) to get a digital copy of the tracks.

Basil1234

S0litaire wrote: »

All you might need to fast forward and rewind the tape once or twice. The tape can stick together causing it to stretch when playing

The tape player might also be "too new" and the rollers that press the tape against the head are to sticky and tight causing the tape to stick and get tangled up.

If the tapes are so old you might be better looking at the "bay of Pirates" ^_~ (wink wink) to get a digital copy of the tracks.

i thought that ship had sunk back in dec 2012.

Lum

Got plenty of old tapes here, including cheap nasty C120s with the super thin tape, they still played fine last time I dug out the tape player, though admittedly that was in 2011.

If it's chewing all your tapes, I'd suggest the problem lies with the player. It's not made by Alba is it?

S0litaire

Basil1234 wrote: »

i thought that ship had sunk back in dec 2012.

It's still sailing the cyber seas... ^_~

System

Thanks guys, it seems the decision has been made. The new machine is boxed and ready to be returned. Our daughter told us on the phone last night that there is something suitable in her cupboard which we can have. Found it and it is OK, but minus tape facility,and when time permits, I will try the tapes she has saved and transfer to disc.

jtk174

If the tapes have been sitting unused for a long time, I would place them in a tape drive and wind and rewind them using the tape deck controls. Listen to the motor noise as you do this and see if the motor is slowing down in places as it winds the tape from one spool to the other.
The tapes can bind together, especially if they haven't been stored away from heat, moisture etc.

john539

Might be better to buy an old tape player which was designed better and more was spent on build quality.

sickparrot

On a side note, I digitised most of my tapes years ago, but recently found another box of 12 I hadn't done. I tried every tape player in the house, including my old Teac HI-FI deck and none of them still worked. I dug out my Fostex 4-track recorder as a last resort and lo and behold, still works perfectly after 25 years, quality product.