Quote:
Originally Posted by ricard
Especially in picture #2 above, it looks like there is a bit of shiny metal where the gap would be, looking rather like the surrounding brass. Is this in fact a spacer that's part of the internal construction of the heads?
The thing that looks strange with these TK819 heads is that, across the face of the head, the brass gives way to what looks like something red, i.e. the potting compound, followed by a strip of metal (?), followed by more red, followed by the brass. There's no remnants of the pole pieces whatsoever.
|
I think that's just what's left of the gap spacer. I'm not sure this is the result of an ill-advised re-lap, because there seems to me no wear outside the tape width. What could have happened is that somebody used ex-studio tape, which was commonly available in the sixties as cheap "white box" tape. Some of this was very abrasive, the surface roughness being intentional to aid neat spooling on studio machines. Twenty or so passes of something like BASF LR56 could account for the state of the heads and maybe explain the capstan wear, too.
The two "black" vertical pieces on the TK5 head are in fact the polepices at either side of the gap - mu-metal was and is expensive, so composite heads of this type were common in domestic machines. As yet, you have full track width on that head and the gap is intact.
As regards output on the worn heads, I should expect a degausser to prduce some signal, as there are still coils and polepieces, but if anything recognisable comes off a tape, I'd be surprised.