Tape Spooling Question!

[Chris55000]

. . .I've got one spool of tape that's reddish–brown on the outside and light brown on the inside (playing) side that spools really badly in either direction on my Ferguson 3261 Stereo DC432 – the layers wind on extremely loosely and overflow the outer edges of the spool!

. . .Is this a defect with the tape itself or is it an indication of poor take–up torque in the 3261 itself? The tape concerned, which has a series of James Last recordings on one side and (what appears to be!) Acker Bilk on the other track, also has a tendency to "wow!" as well!

. . .Given the fact that removing the "Electrical Assemblies" of these Stereo machines is no joke with 84 connections to the amplifier PCB PC173, before even beginning with dismantling the deck itself, can anyone suggest the item numbers (DC432 exploded view) I should be paying special attention to please?

. . .(It is a Sch. B machine with the electrically operated capstan drive solenoid, another strange fault that's cropped up on this machine about a month and a half after I acquired it is that when first switched on, it takes about five or ten minutes before capstan drive actually engages – is this symptom a clue as to where the fault lies?

. . .I've several of these DC43 mono decks for repair with speed change problems but none of them have this strange delayed take–up of the capstan drive!

Chris Williams

[ben]

A few years ago I came across some tape like that, Genofon I think. Very old plastic base tape whose base had warped. Just bin it.

Yours is ether something similar or it has been wound at high torque at some point, and got deformed - somewhere I have a reel of EMI tape like that. Not only does it not wind evenly, you can see its wavy edges as it comes off the supply spool, and it makes poor head-tape contact.

[barrymagrec]

Probably very old acetate base tape, EMI H50 or similar.

I have several reels like that, a single play puts a small pile if oxide under the tape path.

Even sixty years ago using it produced a pronounced vertical curve on heads and guides.

[emeritus]

I had a reel of unbranded tape with the same behaviour ( poor winding and oxide shedding) in the 1960's. It was only used on my Philips EL3585 battery tape recorder that didn't have a powerful take-up drive, so I doubt that excessive take-up tension was the cause.

I had a similar winding (but not shedding) problem with a batch of Philips C120 cassettes that I had bought in the early 1970's before the low noise formulations came out. After a couple of years, they became impossible to wind or play to the end, and I ended up copying them to new cassettes. The only way I could play them to copy them was by opening the shells by carefully cutting along the seams (cassettes were usually glued then) and playing them in half of the cassette shell like a reel-to-reel recorder. This is possible with the EL3302 where you place the cassette on the deck rather than posting it in a slot.

[Chris55000]

. . .After running it through the machine on playback about twice each side its a bit tidier on the reel now so I've taped the reel up to go in the next "for–sale!" pile of fifty I'm getting ready!

. . .I've got a boxful of DC43/DC432 Thorn bits spare in case it's done its worst, but dismantling the stereo machines to service DC432s thoroughly isn't for the faint–hearted, and you can't rely on the Maker's Exploded View Diagram either, as many of the parts aren't depicted well enough to clearly distinguish them from very similar items – the piano–key locking plates are a case in point!

Chris Williams