Is 457 the ampex tape that has the particles fall off the backing?
I tried a search but came up with out finding any threads on this.

I expect that I have 50 reels of this that I haven't listened to in 15 years or so. It sure was expensive tape back in the day. I figured I should listen to them just to keep my deck in working order. RTR's dont like to sit idle for long in my experience.

I don't know if that is the Ampex shedding tape but any tape stored for 15 years will benefit from a 2-3 hour 110 degrees F "baking", just to release the humididy.

Check the date code. It's usually on the tape's spine and says something like 89180. The first 2 digits are the year and the others are the day of that year. If the tape is dated prior to 1995 then it is suspect, 'cause every Ampex back coated tape from around the mid 70's to when Quantegy took over, has the problem binder and, as SaSi mentioned, would benefit from baking. I would, however, only use that method as a temporary measure, to transfer sounds, for instance but not to treat it as a brand new "good" tape.

Thanks,
I am sure that I recorded all of those tapes from 1985-2000.
I guess I had better be careful!

You're welcome. :)

Just to clarify, that Quantegy fixed the binder issue (when it took over from Ampex) and is a fine, stable tape.

I don't know if that is the Ampex shedding tape but any tape stored for 15 years will benefit from a 2-3 hour 110 degrees F "baking", just to release the humididy.

Yeh i too don't remember which one's had the real problems , A megadeth article may help you , Dave mustaine lost a ton of his masters with that tape that fell appart & when they did the remasters for there albums he had to go in & add bass drum parts , guitars , certain vocals as what he could salvage had missing parts from the originals in his master tapes , he also had problems with his final mixdown masters , there are articles where he mentions what tapes were used at the time .

Anyways , i was just reading a lot of local studios in boston are now using food dehydrators to save their tapes instead of baking them with good results , anyone else heard this ?

Anyways , i was just reading a lot of local studios in boston are now using food dehydrators to save their tapes instead of baking them with good results , anyone else heard this ?

Yes. Provided you can get one big enough. :music:

I don't know if that is the Ampex shedding tape but any tape stored for 15 years will benefit from a 2-3 hour 110 degrees F "baking", just to release the humididy.

Just make sure you use a convection oven. The food dehydrater works well also. I use a SnackMaster that holds a 10 inch reel perfectly. The 'bake' fix is temporary, so transfer the material right away.

The vacuum sealers also work well, after you have dried the tape out. When we were storing tape for archival purposes we also used dry nitrogen in the sealed bags for awhile as well.

Check the date code. It's usually on the tape's spine and says something like 89180. The first 2 digits are the year and the others are the day of that year. If the tape is dated prior to 1995 then it is suspect, 'cause every Ampex back coated tape from around the mid 70's to when Quantegy took over, has the problem binder and, as SaSi mentioned, would benefit from baking. I would, however, only use that method as a temporary measure, to transfer sounds, for instance but not to treat it as a brand new "good" tape.
Thanks for that cjacek. I've always wondered what those numbers are. I have a Quantegy 407 starting "2001", so I'm pleased about that, but also have some Ampex 456 starting "94" & "96". So far they're OK.

Thanks for that cjacek. I've always wondered what those numbers are. I have a Quantegy 407 starting "2001", so I'm pleased about that, but also have some Ampex 456 starting "94" & "96". So far they're OK.

You're welcome! :)

If on the back of the box, of that Ampex 456 tape, it says "Opelika AL" then it's the Quantegy tape formulation, which is good. Quantegy used up some leftover Ampex reels / boxes when it took over.

I've got a bunch of Ampex Grand Master 457 Studio Mastering Tape that was purchased new in 1995 that has (had) all of our band's multitrack masters on them. Every one is unplayable and absolutely useless. I can't find the date code (or any numbers) on the box spines, but I remember that I bought them in '95 from Sam Ash Music Center. The address for Ampex is listed as Redwood City, Calif. and ironically there is a warranty notice on the back stating that the tape is warranted for 1 year against defects. I've got to do a search on tape baking or other methods to bring these tapes back from the dead to get the music off of them, but if anyone can shed some light on good articles regarding this could you please post a link? Thanks!

Here is some good info. By following these directions, I have recovered dozens of reels. Good Luck.

http://www.tangible-technology.com/tape/baking1.html

(The SnackMaster works great, even though that photo with the fruit & veggies in the bottom tray is silly.)

I've got a bunch of Ampex Grand Master 457 Studio Mastering Tape that was purchased new in 1995 that has (had) all of our band's multitrack masters on them. Every one is unplayable and absolutely useless. I can't find the date code (or any numbers) on the box spines, but I remember that I bought them in '95 from Sam Ash Music Center. The address for Ampex is listed as Redwood City, Calif. and ironically there is a warranty notice on the back stating that the tape is warranted for 1 year against defects. I've got to do a search on tape baking or other methods to bring these tapes back from the dead to get the music off of them, but if anyone can shed some light on good articles regarding this could you please post a link? Thanks!
Read the other threads that are up here right now. I explained the process already this week.

You are correct that Ampex 457 is totally afflicted with this issue, and MUST be baked. It is the same tape as 456, just 1 mil, rather than 1.5 mil.

I've baked probably close to 100 reels of this stuff, and after a good baking, they will play like new again for about a month.

Thanks goldear - I was just reading your other excellent post while you were writing the above. I think we just put some functioning Blue M ovens out for scrap pickup at work this very week (weird, huh?) If they're still there I'm going to grab one and try it. Otherwise the food dehydrator seems like a great alternative, although I'd rather use one with an adjustable temp control. Thanks for the insight - we were all very bummed when we went to play back the tapes and they crapped all over the place!

Thanks also for that link, Caddy - I'm going to try multiple methods to see what works best.

I've got a bunch of Ampex Grand Master 457 Studio Mastering Tape that was purchased new in 1995 ...... I can't find the date code (or any numbers) on the box spines, but I remember that I bought them in '95 from Sam Ash Music Center. The address for Ampex is listed as Redwood City, Calif.

Yup, if there is no date code then look for either "Opelika AL" or "Redwood City" on the back of the box. That tape, that you bought from Sam Ash, in '95, is the old Ampex oxide and was made before Quantegy took over.

Opelika AL = GOOD :)
Redwood City = BAD :(

Yup, if there is no date code then look for either "Opelika AL" or "Redwood City" on the back of the box. That tape, that you bought from Sam Ash, in '95, is the old Ampex oxide and was made before Quantegy took over.

Opelika AL = GOOD :)
Redwood City = BAD :(
Out of curiosity: Where did you learn this? I've long speculated that when Quantegy took over that the binder issue was fixed, but I've never known for certain if this happened before or after the name change. Do you have some inside knowledge of what transpired at Ampex/Quantegy, and when they figured-out that the binder was bad, etc? I'd love to hear the inside scoop on this old story, if you know it.

Out of curiosity: How is it that you know this? I've long speculated that when Quantegy took over that the binder issue was fixed, but I never knew for certain if this happened before or after the name change.

Well, Quantegy was aware and said it did fix the issue and developed new binders which promised long term stability. In light of this, I think it's only safe to assume that tapes which were made prior to Quantegy buying out Ampex, have problems and this, in fact, bears out in reports, not only from users but also from Ampex.

I would not touch any back-coated Ampex tape made in Redwood City, even if it was new old stock and I would bake what I had for transfers. Many problems reported, due to sticky shed, from that era.

Quantegy tapes seem to not have had any reports of classic sticky shed since and it's been like close to 15 years.

Well, I baked a few reels in my food dehydrater and gave them a listen. They sounded fine and my heads were spotless afterwords. So far so good. I did have 1 reel of 456 that had particles comming off in strips. I tossed that one.
I have a 3600' reel of leader tape, I suppose I could thread that up and play a cd. After all it is all about watching the reels go round and round.

It really sucked. I bought tons of 456/457 for important recordings that needed what I perceived as better quality than XLI during the 80's and early 90's. Needless to say, all the XLI tapes still sound great, the 456/457 I baked, and copied what I could - and have spent many hours cleaning the residue off my machines.

It stinks to have people call me today and ask for a replacement copy of something and I have to say, 'Oh, your master tapes fell apart - Sorry, We thought Ampex was the best at the time.'

Now I capture everything I can to the computer using 'lossless' .flacs. We will see in another 20 years if they still work.