The overall problem is a common one, I would guess, since many of the
machines used for archiving today are not in their first youths, and
wear of the various transport parts will cause changes in speed. I
thought this should give others food for thought in checking out their
analog decks, and I hope my experience will be of help to others.
The irony here is that I'm sure the vendor from whom I purchased the
Scully wasn't aware of any problem, since he was doing "in house"
recordings, and, as long as the recordings were played back on the same
deck, they would be relatively "perfect", playing at the same speed they
were recorded.
I have gone back and remastered the offending recordings. I have also
in some cases used my digital software to resample the .wav files using
the "time/pitch" tools in Cool Edit Pro, since I have now found that
some of the library's 1/4" tape masters were not recorded perfectly on
pitch, either, due to the machines they were using back in the '50's and
'60's.
So, the moral of the story is: "Nothing Is Perfect".