tape repair and restoration

We often receive enquiries about audio and video tape that is not in the best condition having been stored in humid conditions, suffering from binder hydrolysis (sticky shed) or not wound on its reel well, but we were surprised when we received this tape recently.

It literally is a bag of tape! It is a cassette tape that had at some point become unspooled, probably when the cassette shell was opened for a repair. We can and did restore the tape by respooling and reshelling before playing on one of our Nakamichi dual capstan cassette decks.

This is a time consuming job though as thin tape twists, turns and crinkles up very easily needing careful tension, customised winding systems and protection from contaminants such as dust, grease, etc that could cause more damage to an already compromised recording.