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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