playing 40 year old tapes on a 40 year old reel-to-reel. Precautions to take?

[Robert Bass]

I disagree with the comment above that the Otari machines do not handle tape gently and are not kind to older tapes. My main transcription machine is an Otari MX-5050-BQII 4-track and let me just say this: Properly maintained and adjusted, they are some of the smoothest handling machines you can find. It's also extremely versatile, handling all three common speeds up to 15ips, and workable with almost any track format.

Otari's rock.

-A

I wouldn’t consider the Otari machines as gentle tape handlers. I have personal experience with four different models of the 5050BII. It is a wonderful workhorse machine for heavy duty use, primarily in broadcast applications. The 5050’s have a tendency to stretch thinner tapes, especially when you enter the deck into stop mode, after fast winding in either direction. As long as you stick with thick mastering tape like Quantegy 456, the machine is a winner.

This is not to say you can’t use the deck for transferring old tapes. But some precautions should be undertaken to reduce damaging thinner and / or older brands like acetate. Here are a few suggestions that will help when using the deck for valuable tapes:

Use only plastic tape reels, especially when using acetate tape formulations, and thinner tape (such as 1800 feet lengths on 7” inch reels).

Try not to use the fast-winding modes of operation, where you intend to stop the deck at any given location within the tape. If you absolutely must use the deck in this manner, you need to use a “soft stop” a.k.a. electronic braking trick that some Teac machines use. These Teac machines do not instantly apply the brakes. Instead, the decks first reverse the fast winding direction, essentially causing electronic braking. This allows natural friction to slow down the speed of the fast winding, before applying the brakes. You can do the same thing with Otari decks, by first pressing the fast wind button opposite the direction you are fast winding. When the original winding speed decreases, and just before the reel motors are about to change directions, then you can apply the stop command. Not only does this reduce wear and tear on your old tapes, it also extends the life of the machine’s brake pads!

One other suggestion I have is, avoid using 7” inch or smaller reels on the machine. Since most consumer tapes were sold on 7” inch reels, you should first fast wind the tape off of the 7” reel onto a 10.5” inch plastic reel. Then remove the empty 7” inch reel, and replace it with an empty 10.5” inch plastic reel. The goal is to keep the tape running on 10’5” plastic reels, while the tape is in use. I recommend this procedure for any tape deck that uses 10.5” inch reels.

R

 

[Lane Lindstrom]

I must also agree that a well maintained MCI JH-110 is the most gentle on tape. It is the one I use, and though it can be a pain to maintain....it can handle tape like no other deck. The Otaris are good, I have several, but the MCI beats them all.

Lane

 

[Robert Bass]

I must also agree that a well maintained MCI JH-110 is the most gentle on tape. It is the one I use, and though it can be a pain to maintain....it can handle tape like no other deck. The Otaris are good, I have several, but the MCI beats them all.

Lane

Lane... Can you spare one of those Otari's? I have one with a faulty 7 1/2 speed controller pot. It's dead. The deck still runs at 15 i.p.s., and even 3 3/4 i.p.s. I miss my 7.5 though, since now I can't archive all these automated music reels in my collection.



R

 

[littlejohn]

Lane -

There's a way to beat much of the maintenance headaches with MCIs if you have a good soldering hand and a LOT of patience. If you look, you can find both pins and inserts for the Molex connecters those boys use in a gold plate rather than the ones which came in them. Replace ALL the pins and the connector inserts with the gold flashed ones, and your troubles will be greatly reduced. Remember, the current in the closed loop is 50uA... almost any crud or corrosion on the pins in and around the analog torque board will creat trouble.

Put gold connectors in it, replace the IC sockets with gold flashed ones, and alls you have to worry about then is the motor tachometers going noisy. Whether the time and expense is worth it to you is a personal decision.

If Ampex had ever been able to get the production ATR100s to match the prototypes they showed in quality, it would have been an equally nice machine. I never saw a production one which was even close in quality or operation though.

 

[Lane Lindstrom]

Excellent point made by Mr Littlejohn, I ended all of the flakey problems by replacing the original tin plated Molex pins and connectors to the gold plated ones as well as the IC sockets some 15 years ago. The MCI decks were way ahead of their time with the ceramic servo capstan to the DC torque moters. Before that a flickering flourecent light in the studio would be picked up by the tape break optosensor and send the machine into stop, rewind or even the tape spill mode...both reels going backwards spilling tape on the floor. I should have mentioned the Molex problem and modification in my original post.

Lane