Re: [ARSCLIST] Coffee Cassette

[David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I don't think Consumer Reports ever did a "coffee test" on cassettes. Too
bad....

dl (still laughing at this one..but we've all had disasters to salvage, like
dropping the middle out of a pancake or having half-mil tape wind start
twisting itself around the hub during a rewind..Ted O'Reilly had to salvage an
entire all-night show that was due to be aired on CJRT and was on half-mil that
had self-destructed)

Joav Shdema wrote:

> I have a similar story of cassette restoration, but in this case
> restoration was performed. 3 weeks ago I received a 30 something years
> old C-60 Philips cassette. The leader end was broken and the whole tape
> was rolled at one end. Apparently a quick fix 'n transfer job. Not so.
> We've spliced the tape back and started playing it just to find it was
> twisted in several places in a spaghetti like string. The audio was
> going forward and then, several minutes down the tape, backwards and
> back again.
> We had to take all the tape out of the shell and IRON it inch by inch
> back to manageable and playable condition. The person who performed the
> ironing didn't move his feet for over an hour not to step over the
> spillage on the floor while I was de-tangling the tape as we slowly
> pulled the ironed tape back into a new clean shell.
> Instead of a 1 hour job it became a 5 hour job and the client went with
> it - good nerve breaking exercise.
>
> Joav Shdema
> Producer/Engineer
> Joav Shdema Inc.
> dB Recording Studios Inc.
>  www.joavshdema.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
> [mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Richard L. Hess
> Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 9:06 PM
> To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [ARSCLIST] Coffee Cassette
>
> Someone sent me a cassette that had been steeped in coffee--suspected
> with sugar and creamer...the layers were glued together.
>
> It was a Radio Shack cassette and was very very fragile, too.
> Normally, polyester cassette tapes are robust, this one if looked at
> wrong tore. I wonder if the coffee/sugar/creamer had weakened it.
>
> With all the concerns about it, we pulled the life support plug 30
> minutes into the project when my estimate of cost to complete
> skyrocketed. Since I couldn't do anything, I didn't charge for the 30
> minutes, either.
>
> I think it could be done, but it would take several hours of careful
> washing. She's going to re-do the interview rather than spend that
> kind of money. I would want a serpentine film-type drying rack to dry
> it, too.
>
> Anyone ever had success with this?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Richard
>
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