Re: [ARSCLIST] Coffee Cassette

[Joav Shdema <joavs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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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