Well, I was just playing a tape (this tape is about 30 years old, and made by Capitol), and half way through the second song, it started sounding horrible and muffled, like the head was progressively becoming out of alignment. It was slowly getting worse and worse. I tapped the tape, I took it out and put it back in, I rewinded and then fast forwarded it. Then just now I broke out the Windex and cleaned the head. Good as new.

When cassettes age, do little particles start flaking off of it or something?
I never even have this problem with 8 tracks, even with their graphite flaking off all over the place and dirtying up the entire inside of the tape slot, I never have to clean the head this often.

And as we speak, it's starting to happen again. It seems that when I play this tape, I gotta clean the head every 5 minutes.

Old tapes can shed their oxide coating, some worse than others, and it looks like you have a worse case. I'd say the tape is toast and stop playing it as it is just going to plug your heads. Seems to me I have heard of a way to temporarily preserve the tape by heating it or something to get one last play to make a copy. Or maybe I imagined that?

Then just now I broke out the Windex and cleaned the head. Good as new.

Just a tip, never use Windex to clean your Head or Tape Guides. Use Denatured Alcohol or 99% Isopropyl Alcohol and Cotton Swabs. The water content in the Windex is not good and can lead to corrosion over time.

Visa Versa, you can use Windex on your Pinch Rollers, but never Alcohol. It will breakdown the rubber in a hurry. Better yet, use Rawn Re-Grip, which is the same product as Tascam RC-1.

BTW, I would look for another copy of that tape as well.

Regards,
TB

I'll second Tower Boss on all counts.

The binder on the tape is dying...hence the massive oxide shed.

Oh man, that's crappy. This is one of my favourite tapes.

I think I'm just gonna record it onto a blank tape, then put it into the cartridge of the original tape.

But the best thing would be to just find another copy at the thrift or something. They'e litterally swimming in cassettes, and this one in particular isn't all that hard to come across.

And good thing you told me about the windex thing, because I always use that to clean all my tape heads.

And this might be a totally stupid question, in fact, I'm scared shitless to ask this for fear of being laughed at, but will whisky, vodka, or rum work as head cleaning fluid? Because i have more than enough of that stuff, but no head cleaning alchohol.

Hmm. Whiskey? Rum?

As per the previous post, you need 91% denatured alcohol. These drinks contain alcohol between 40~60%, way too low. And the rest is water + a lot of unknowns. Bad.

Now, I've heard about some Finnish an Russian Vodkas containing >95% alcohol. I'm sure these should be fine (lol).

Regarding tape shedding, I'd try heating the tape at 40~45 degrees Celcius for a couple of hours. It has been extremely effective with certain open reel tapes I had to make copies of.

I have heard of using vodka as head cleaner, but everclear would probably be better...

I have heard of using vodka as head cleaner, but everclear would probably be better...

I could do that! My friend has a bottle of Everclear he got from God knows where. I can't get a bottle of my own because it's illegal here in Saskatchewan.

I never seen this infamous bottle, but he talks about it sometimes, and one of these days he wants me to take a shot of it. I'm a little nervous about the 90-some % alchohol though.

It's a good thing I asked about this though, I was gonna use some Crown Royal to clean the head haha, but i guess that would be a really bad idea.

Well, I was just playing a tape (this tape is about 30 years old, and made by Capitol), and half way through the second song, it started sounding horrible and muffled, like the head was progressively becoming out of alignment. It was slowly getting worse and worse. I tapped the tape, I took it out and put it back in, I rewinded and then fast forwarded it.

Of all the pre-recorded cassettes I have had, the Capitol and other EMI associated label tapes (Harvest, Angel, etc.) have been about the worst for self-destructing (oxide shed or the shells start squealing) when they start getting some age on them. I have lost some much loved recordings this way.