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Did Nixon Erase My Tape?

During my Army days in the early 70s, I bought stereo pieces while I was overseas and had them sent home to wait for me when I got out. One of the pieces was a Teac RTR, and over the next 12-15 years, I made around 50 7" tape mixes, all of them at 7 1/2 IPS. I still have those tapes and have acquired three nice RTRs.....a Teac A-4300SX, a Teac X-1000R, and an Akai GX-636. I was playing a tape today on the X-1000 and when I hit 'reverse' to play the second side, all I got was silence, with an occasional garbled sound every 5 seconds or so. At first, I thought maybe I had erased the second side and never re-recorded back over it, but the back of the box (where you would write in whatever you recorded) showed no changes.So I removed the tape from the right take-up reel, flipped it over so that the B side was now the A side and re-threaded the tape back on the left reel. The recording played beautifully, with no problems, and I'm trying to figure out where the problem lies. The tape was originally recorded on a Teac A-4010SL and I think this is the first time I've played it in at least 20 years. I'm thinking that tracks 2 and 4 just don't line up correctly with the reverse-playback heads on the X-1000, which itself seems goofy to me. Any veteran tape-heads out there that have an opinion, please let me know. The X-1000R has bi-directional recording capability, which the A-4010SL did not.
discnik
discnik OP
161 posts
 
Thanks for the service manual data-base info oldhvymec. It will help me to delve into this problem and decide whether to tackle it on my own or get competent help (I'm leaning toward the latter). I learned the Law of Diminishing Returns in painful way years ago when I replaced a trap under the kitchen sink, but failed to seal it correctly. Woke up the next morning to an inch of water on the flooring. Or maybe that was Murphy's Law?
lewm
13,110 posts
 
Every time one of these threads come up, with one or more persons singing the praise of R2R, I am tempted to get into it.  Then, one of my local friends who is already deeply into it says, no.  That I would be crazy.  But when I listen to his tapes at his house, the sound is very very good. He's invested many thousands.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,305 posts
 
R2r is the best legacy playback and recording format. It also happens to be the most limited in regards to pre-recorded releases available.
If you are into making your own tape recordings, then R2R is the best. Hifi VHS is also very good and a much easier format to deal with but not nearly as sexy or applicable for live recording 🔥😉
tuzarupa's avatar
tuzarupa
65 posts
 
What brand of tape?
First, check out the mechanical pieces on the deck and get that straight.If there is still an issue you should consider "baking" the tape.
Not an uncommon practice in the pro-audio world. Especially with tapes from the 70's.
One major tape manufacturer had a fleet of "rolling evens" visiting pro recording studios. It worked.

discnik OP
161 posts
 
If I have to resort to 'baking' a tape to get it to work, it's time to discard that tape. The only stereo-related item(s) I have ever cooked are Vibrapods - when they get squashed from the weight of whatever they've been under, cooking them in a 200 degree oven for a few minutes will be like a dose of Viagra to them. How does that treatment benefit older tapes, tuzarupa? I've always stored my tapes upright in their plastic baggies and boxes to avoid problems with them settling unevenly. And I never used high-speed rewind except for very brief spaces because of my fear it would stretch the tape.
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