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TIMTAPE · 26th Mar 2019, 2:28 pm

Setting the azimuth should be child's play compared to head tilt (which if wrong, over time causes the keystoning wear pattern). But as already mentioned, if there's already a definite wear groove and we havent relapped the wear groove out, there's not much choice but to reinstall the head exactly as it was, with the tape sitting neatly in the existing wear groove. For that is the only setting which will allow the best tape to head contact in that circumstance. Once we try and adjust the head azimuth with the wear groove unremoved, the tape may fight against the changed groove angle and may even pop out of the wear groove altogether. At worst, the tape is permanently damaged.

I specialise in transferring existing old tape recordings where play head azimuth is no longer fixed. It's whatever the old recording dictates. So azimuth becomes a tape by tape proposition and of course the play head must not have a wear groove.

26th Mar 2019, 2:28 pm	#72
TIMTAPE Octode Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Perth, Western Australia Posts: 1,969	Re: Ferrograph 4A: Restoration advice needed Setting the azimuth should be child's play compared to head tilt (which if wrong, over time causes the keystoning wear pattern). But as already mentioned, if there's already a definite wear groove and we havent relapped the wear groove out, there's not much choice but to reinstall the head exactly as it was, with the tape sitting neatly in the existing wear groove. For that is the only setting which will allow the best tape to head contact in that circumstance. Once we try and adjust the head azimuth with the wear groove unremoved, the tape may fight against the changed groove angle and may even pop out of the wear groove altogether. At worst, the tape is permanently damaged. I specialise in transferring existing old tape recordings where play head azimuth is no longer fixed. It's whatever the old recording dictates. So azimuth becomes a tape by tape proposition and of course the play head must not have a wear groove.