Re: [ARSCLIST] Leader tape

[Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Even the 3M stuff had bad batches. I remember one that completely gummed up a tape machine. Big 
recall of a couple of batch numbers. This would have been summer 1982 because I was in charge of 
gathering and returing every square inch of 3M leader tape in a working studio environment. This was 
especially not good with the 2" 3M M79 machines. Those works are not the easiest to clean when they 
gum up. As I recall, it was un-striped white Scotch/3M leader tape, definitely 2" and possibly 
quarter-inch and half-inch. I know I gathered all of it up and returned it all to our supplier. It 
was a  two-week period of leader tape problems and I remember 3M was scrambling.

I've never had a problem with paper leader tape except for the age-old problem of some splices not 
holding over time. I laid in a good supply of 3M paper leader and that's what I use. The worst 
leader and timing I've ever used was generic clear-celefane (sp?) type and red, blue and green 
varients. This stuff retains high doses of static electricity and in some cases goes gooey over 
time.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard L. Hess" <arclists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 11:16 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Leader tape


> At 10:52 PM 2007-11-20, Michael Biel m.biel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> > At 07:29 PM 2007-11-20, Eric Jacobs wrote:
> > > FullCompass shipped me 10 reels of paper leader on October 5, 2007
> >
> > Although mastering studios required paper leader for tapes sent for
> > disc mastering, if I remember correctly the ARSC AAA archival
> > guidelines manual disapproves of paper leader for archival storage.
> > Hydrolysis and expansion/contraction was the reason.  It especially
> > shouldn't be used at the core.  Any AAA members here remember
> > specifically?
>
> I certainly would not use plastic leader at the core...too many reels have had the oxide on the 
> first turn get pulled off onto the plastic leader.
>
> It's a bit of being caught between a rock and a hard place. I have played a large quantity of 
> tapes with paper leader and other than the splices failing after a baking on the paper leader, I 
> can't recall any damage that I attributed to the paper, but I've seen 3M, Maxell, and Ampex all 
> deposit oxide on the plastic leader. The Maxell were my masters which really ticked me off as it 
> had otherwise been an almost perfect tape. Fortunately I had a safety and edited it together. I 
> had to fix an Ampex reel with plastic leader, but I fortunately there was a repeat of the opening 
> phrase a few measures in, so I copied it. The client was happy.
>
> Please don't use plastic leader -- at least not the 3M stuff.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Richard
>
>
> Richard L. Hess                   email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Aurora, Ontario, Canada       (905) 713 6733     1-877-TAPE-FIX
> Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
> Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.