1950s studio question: how often did engineers clean the machine heads?

Were there blank tape brands that ended up being better in long term storage than others? Or were they ll about the same. I guess 3m was the biggie manufacturer?

 

I inherited a bunch of vintage reels, different brands. Scotch and BASF seem to have survived the journey of time. Kodak? Not so much.

 

Did EMI produce their own tape or was it contracted out?

 

EMI made their tape at Hayes
In the 60s we cleaned heads , transport guides , pinch wheel ,capstan, every shift or when they were dirty
We also lined up every shift,replay level ,bias ,record level and de maged when appropriate
It was an essential industrial process,valves were changed regularly,the kit was always on
Signal paths were long noisey and complicated.

 

In the USA, Scotch/3M, Soundcraft, and Audiotape were the dominant brands of tape in that era.

 

I use the little alcohol swabs that diabetics use when they give themselves injections. Cheap and perfect for the job. You can get them at the drug store.

 

A reply to this thread, with a couple of points I feel I can chime in on:

1. Tape manufactured before the Endangered Species Act of 1972 generally has no sticky shed. Whale oil, which was covered under the Endangered Species Act, was the magic lubricating ingredient and tape formulations like Scotch 111 that used whale oil will be playing fine 100 years from now. Some of the cheaper tapes from the early era were not lubricated on both sides and that can cause a problem, but generally, the sticky shed phenomenon only happens on tapes manufactured after the whale oil ban of 1972.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endangered_Species_Act

2. Back in the 1950's and 1960's, carbon tetrachloride was what Ampex and other companies sold to clean their heads and tape paths on their tape recorders. The stuff worked like magic--I've got a few old bottles and one swipe will wipe away a bunch of sticky shed like one of those old Bounty paper towel ads from the 1980s--but it was also really, really, really, noxious. The fumes would kill you if you didn't have the studio windows open. In fact, there is a famous story about how Nashville became the epicenter for country music recording instead of Dallas--the story is centered around the death of Dallas studio owner Jim Beck after he inhaled too much tape head cleaner in 1956. His studio closed, and the majority of the major labels began recording in Nashville after his death. Interesting side note how this sort of thing can affect history:

http://res.dallasnews.com/interactives/country-dallas/

Here's a link to that evil chemical carbon tetrachloride. Boy, it's evil....but it also works GREAT for the intended purpose.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_tetrachloride

3. Regarding head demagnetization, the Ampex manuals had step by step instructions on how to demag heads from the beginning, so I'm assuming that they thought it was fairly important. I've got a collection of 1950's head demagnetizers and the RCA ones, which are more like a magic wand with a button, are the bee's knees.

4. Regarding alignment of machines, I think especially in the tube era those engineers aligned their machines constantly. There is an interview with the great Bill Porter (Roy Orbison, Elvis, the Everly Brothers, etc etc) where he mentions that he wasn't any kind of genius, he merely obsessed on making sure his equipment was running correctly all the time, including aligning the tape machines. What I find interesting is that Ampex's tube machines seem to need to be biased and aligned all the time, whereas the later solid state machines (AG-350, AG-440, etc) once you get them aligned and biased, if you don't move them in a van during the interim, will pretty much stay that way for years at a time.

Hope this helps "shed" a little light on this subject....ha ha

Deke

 

Well, this settles it. Bring back whaling and carbon tetrachloride!

 

Chadbang--

You know, I've had a lifetime of sorting out mixed feelings about things like this. I certainly wouldn't ever want to bring BACK whaling or carbon tetrachloride, BUT....there's no changing the fact that they manufactured a lot of good tape before 1972 that's still good today. If I find unopened reels of Scotch 111 I'm gonna use 'em.

And I've got a bottle of Ampex head cleaner, pure carbon tetrachloride, that I occasionally will use when things need a real cleaning. It works better than ANYTHING else. I just make sure the windows are open and I only have the bottle uncapped for 5 minutes. I throw away the swabs after I'm done and put them outside so I don't have a trash can full of tetrachloride swabs in my studio. Again, I wouldn't ever advocate them making the stuff again, but there's tons of the old 50's stuff laying around, still available....

Deke

 

Steve--

Of course, I defer to your knowledge and experience. I'm a complete nobody here....a nobody with a lifelong interest in the recording methods of the past. I've always been blown away by the quality of your remastering jobs, and prefer your work over anybody else in the business! However, I'm a little confused by your blanket statement that "Ampex tubed machines had no means for adjusting bias and aligning heads." I'm sure that we must be talking about slightly different things. Perhaps you can educate me on what you're referring to, since all I have are my Ampex machines and manuals here at my house. I am certainly not challenging your expertise in such matters, I'm just asking for some education and enlightenment here--

Here's the Ampex 350 manual section on bias adjustment:
https://flic.kr/p/toBc7b

and a photo of the bias control set screw on the back of a 350 electronics:
https://flic.kr/p/toAYFQ

Here's the Ampex 350 manual pages on Record head alignment, and Playback head alignment:
https://flic.kr/p/tFcGax
https://flic.kr/p/toBDXq

Help me out, I'm confused here....

Thanks,
Deke

 

Steve--

Thanks for the clarification. You are of course correct in what you are saying.

My problem is, I don't think like modern guys. I think like the old guys and I don't like modern equipment, so therein lies the confusion. Whenever I do a session with the old tube gear, I obsessively clean/demag/align everything beforehand to try and avoid the sort of delays you're referring to. Of course, when you're dealing with 50-year old stuff, there's always that tube that decides to start making noise or the capacitor/resistor that WAS fine on the last session, but decides to blow when there are a room full of musicians ready to play...

Thank you and I hope my last query did not come off as obnoxious.

Deke

 

I use the little alcohol pads that you would use to give yourself a shot. They're very handy. You can get them at the drug store.

 

Steve--

I think there's only one Deke Dickerson. If there's another, there must be some guy collecting all those million dollar royalty checks I never received....ha ha

I have a mono 351, same era as yours, and it "drifts." I have to bias and align it every time I use it. It drifted before I got the caps and tubes replaced and it drifts after the caps and tubes were replaced. I wonder why yours would stay rock solid and mine drifts? Blue card/grey card difference, or perhaps just your machine is in better shape with less hours than mine? That being said, when I get it going, it plays back FLAT to 20K, which as you say, is quite impressive for a 50+ year old tube machine...

On the other hand, I have an AG-350-2 for stereo playback, and I NEVER have to adjust it. Every time I check it, it's just--bam--rock solid, as you say. It was made in 1965. That's impressive.

"The Real" Deke

 

Those can work.

 

Deke! Good to see you here, man!

 

Thanks, action pact!

 

Deke!

I couldn't get into the thread you used the other day - so I started a "Conversation" with you yesterday on this forum. It's the only way I could think of to get a hold of you and respond to your kind comments and questions! See you there.

George
www.GuitarsInSync.com
Music in the Les Paul and Mary Ford Tradition

 

found this on the tube, an old film looking into the history of ampex. interesting to see the assembly line towards the end
of how the tape recorder was assembled.

 

Now this is great, definitely not the common old PD films on audio that get trotted out again and again. Can't wait to give this a good viewing, or 12. Thanks!