How long have you been into tapes? I use denatured alcohol to clean the heads; been doing that for years, way back when I used to have reel to reel decks, too. Also good on cassette machines.
I used to have an electric wand demagnitizer which I used to use on all those machines I used to have. I think it did a better job than the cassette one does, but that's my opinion, and everybody has one! Now, I have a battery cassette-shaped demagnitizer since all my open reel decks were stolen from me in Nevada as a result of a secret divorce and the person trashed everything I worked hard on through the years. Many rare tapes were willfully dumped in trash cans around Reno with braille and raised print labels affixed to them, and nobody gave a damn about how I was feeling back then. I could not get legal help and so on. Anyway, back to the present topic, denatured alcohol, and be careful with the q tips--wipe the rubber roller and all the metal parts you can squeeze in to reach, then when you use the demagnitizer you can get at any RadioShack store, you turn down the volume because the tone can be very piercing and I don't think you want to listen to that. If you must monitor it, then set the volume to low enough for you to hear without being freaked out. When the tone stops and the tape automatically shuts off, you are demagnitized. It does not affect your other tapes, although it would be a good idea to store that demagnitizer two or three slots away in your case, if you have a big case that holds 40 or 50 tapes. The battery in that thing lasts a long time. I've had mine for twelve years. I'd rather have the wand, but don't know if the electric wand demagnitizers are available anymore. It saddens me that so many good things we used to use have passed on to the next format. Sometimes, I really do miss the older formats, but the cost of maintaining it these days are horrendous, I hear, especially for low income owners who do not have lots of money to play with and spend. Phono cartridges are already expensive, I hear. It's a shame! I'm sorry I launched into a full-blown lecture about that. I realize I come a long way. I'm already facing complete digitiizing of my tapes, including music on videotapes which I recorded two years ago. It's a massive project which I am enjoying working on. The vast majority of my collection will now be in mp3 on CD's. I know that the more you take care of your machines, the longer they will last. I miss the neighborhood repair shop where they used to know you and fixed your equipment and kept it going. What a sad thing this is a throwaway world, and even people are throwaways now. Sorry. Take care and best of luck with your audio work. Mimi [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mp3 is what I do best. Some may have better editing programs than me, but I'm not jealous. I just cannot afford it. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Terri Stimmel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "PC audio discussion list. " <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2004 6:43 PM Subject: Re: question about recording books > Hi, > How do I demagnetize my tape heads? And what do I need in order to do that? > Also, what's good to use, when cleaning a tape deck? > Thank you, > Terri > > > _______________________________________________ > PC-Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... > http://www.pc-audio.org > > To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ PC-Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... http://www.pc-audio.org To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
