MMM
Member
Hello all,
You may recall from the "Shocker Log" that I won the 360 DEGREES OF BILLY PAUL sealed Quad 8 track recently sold on eBay. Well, the tape arrived a few weeks ago, but it is not currently playable.
The tape looked basically as described in the auction, except that there was a small drill hole in the label end of the cartridge. No big deal...
So, the next thing I did was carefully slit the opening, so I did not have to remove any shrinkwrap from the sleeve. I took the tape out, and as expected, the pad was totally dryrotted. Since this is one of the earlier style CBS Quads, with a locking tab under the label, and the cartridge was new and pristine, I really didn't want to make a slit into the label. So I carefully removed all the junk, pulled out a bit of tape, cut a new "Win-Gib" pad in half, put some Super Glue on the back of each piece, and carefully inserted each half with tweezers onto the original pad's backing. Next was the splice, which was thankfully right in place. It was still intact, but weakening, so I replaced that pretty easily. I also got a little bit of Super Lube into the roller center, barely having to wipe off any excess where it didn't belong. I was so proud of being able to do all this on a closed cartridge. But, well...
Once I pushed the loop I pulled out back into the cartridge, I noticed that once in, the tape wouldn't move, from the supply (left) side. Well, after all that detailed work, I had to open the cartridge! So, I carefully made the slits to get to the tab under the label, and opened it up. Arrgh!!!
Now, I do not have the largest collection of these tapes in the world, but do have quite a few. I've opened many of these, and have never seen anything like this. Besides some excess tape wrapped around the top/center of the reel (where the tape feeds out from the hub), was stuck tape, WITH MULTIPLE LEADS COMING OUT OF THE CENTER!!! See below - the excess tape was removed when I took these pictures, but the two leads haven't changed...
I am not qualified to repair this mess. I even had to cut off a short section of tape, which I carefully spooled onto an empty plastic 8mm film reel, secured with splicing tape attached to the back of the audio tape, which will have to be spliced back in. I do not have a reel deck to unspool (from the take up side) & respool this cartridge.
Due to the rarity of this tape, not to mention the state the cartridge is currently in, I refuse to mail this anywhere for repair. I am looking for someone who is really good at respooling 8 track cartridges so that they play correctly as intended, and is relatively local. I would need to personally bring the tape to you for repair, and I want to wait for it while being repaired.
I live in Northeastern New Jersey. I am willing to drive a reasonable distance. Please advise on how much fixing this tape would cost. Hopefully I can work out a date, etc. with someone who is willing to work "in person" on this. If you do not want to respond in this thread, I have the PM function on.
I'm not sure if I started this thread in the correct "room" of the Forum. If not, could a moderator please move?
Thanks so much, in advance...
You may recall from the "Shocker Log" that I won the 360 DEGREES OF BILLY PAUL sealed Quad 8 track recently sold on eBay. Well, the tape arrived a few weeks ago, but it is not currently playable.
The tape looked basically as described in the auction, except that there was a small drill hole in the label end of the cartridge. No big deal...
So, the next thing I did was carefully slit the opening, so I did not have to remove any shrinkwrap from the sleeve. I took the tape out, and as expected, the pad was totally dryrotted. Since this is one of the earlier style CBS Quads, with a locking tab under the label, and the cartridge was new and pristine, I really didn't want to make a slit into the label. So I carefully removed all the junk, pulled out a bit of tape, cut a new "Win-Gib" pad in half, put some Super Glue on the back of each piece, and carefully inserted each half with tweezers onto the original pad's backing. Next was the splice, which was thankfully right in place. It was still intact, but weakening, so I replaced that pretty easily. I also got a little bit of Super Lube into the roller center, barely having to wipe off any excess where it didn't belong. I was so proud of being able to do all this on a closed cartridge. But, well...
Once I pushed the loop I pulled out back into the cartridge, I noticed that once in, the tape wouldn't move, from the supply (left) side. Well, after all that detailed work, I had to open the cartridge! So, I carefully made the slits to get to the tab under the label, and opened it up. Arrgh!!!
Now, I do not have the largest collection of these tapes in the world, but do have quite a few. I've opened many of these, and have never seen anything like this. Besides some excess tape wrapped around the top/center of the reel (where the tape feeds out from the hub), was stuck tape, WITH MULTIPLE LEADS COMING OUT OF THE CENTER!!! See below - the excess tape was removed when I took these pictures, but the two leads haven't changed...
I am not qualified to repair this mess. I even had to cut off a short section of tape, which I carefully spooled onto an empty plastic 8mm film reel, secured with splicing tape attached to the back of the audio tape, which will have to be spliced back in. I do not have a reel deck to unspool (from the take up side) & respool this cartridge.
Due to the rarity of this tape, not to mention the state the cartridge is currently in, I refuse to mail this anywhere for repair. I am looking for someone who is really good at respooling 8 track cartridges so that they play correctly as intended, and is relatively local. I would need to personally bring the tape to you for repair, and I want to wait for it while being repaired.
I live in Northeastern New Jersey. I am willing to drive a reasonable distance. Please advise on how much fixing this tape would cost. Hopefully I can work out a date, etc. with someone who is willing to work "in person" on this. If you do not want to respond in this thread, I have the PM function on.
I'm not sure if I started this thread in the correct "room" of the Forum. If not, could a moderator please move?
Thanks so much, in advance...