Metropoulos Forum

On a reel, which side of the tape should be out, the glossy side or the matte side?

So whichever side is out on the reel, the opposite side is being recorded on, right?

Yes. Glossy (brown) side should be hitting the tape heads. Matte (black) side should be on the outside. (using Ampex as an example).

http://www.mistyhillaudio.com/images/li ... 0mkIII.jpg

Ok.

What would cause a dramatic loss of playback output in a tube reel to reel?

Like having to crank it just to hear stuff that sounds muffled, to the point where it begins to feed back with no mic attached. A bad tube?

I have one of those old Wollensak reel to reels

It could be the circuitry, the heads or both. You'll need to clean and de-magnatize the heads then run tests with sine waves. Do you have a test tape?

You should look for the maintenance and alignment manual, if you don't have one already.

george

I need to get the manual, but production of these things stopped in the late 1950's and they were a consumer product, not really for anything more than recording Grandma at Christmas or something.

I don't have a test tape or any of that stuff, nothing to work on reel to reels, not even a schematic.

The odd thing is I think with the old scotch tapes I have where both sides are brown but one is glossy and one is matte that I've been recording on the matte side, because the glossy side is on the outside of the reel.

The new tapes I bought had the black matte part on the outside of the reel, which I assume is correct.

The odd thing is I think with the old scotch tapes I have where both sides are brown but one is glossy and one is matte that I've been recording on the matte side, because the glossy side is on the outside of the reel.

That is correct. The matte side is the iron oxide the shinny side is the plastic tape.

Most machines had the tape heads facing forward and the tape ran from left to right with the oxide side away from the front toward the back touching the heads. Yea I am old enough to have used and owned them.

So old tape= two brown sides, with the matte side being the iron oxide side

new tape = black matte side, glossy brown side, with the brown side being the iron oxide

Anybody?

I'm not sure if I should put money into all this test equipment for something that only costs about $30 on ebay, but I dunno, I still liked having a portable reel to reel for just gettin' stuff out.

Looks like this, only mine isn't the stereo version



Those are 7" reels. 1/4" tape.

You might just find that these old decks don't have enough bias current to record effectively on modern tape formulations.
Try a tape like BASF/Emtec LPR 35 (Now RMG LPR 35) which requires a lot less bias current.

Although to be fair, if that's the deck you've got, you just might find that a new tape is worth more.

I love open reel though, I keep a couple of nice Revox's, a Pioneer RT-707 and a Sony TC-399 here.

In fact, the Sony is quite a hi-fi machine for not a lot of money, properly serviced. After setting mine up with a scope and a signal generator, it still sounds better than my Marantz CD recorder, and the record/replay response is damn near flat, despite not having much in the way of adjustment.
And the Revoxes wipe the floor with my digital recorders, especially my 1/2 track PR-99 running at 15 ips.

When you clean the heads don't just clean the heads. Clean every part the tape touches. You will probably find it is relatively easy to get the heads and most other parts clean but that black rubber thing (forgot what it is called) that turns with the tape usually takes a LONG time to get clean. Many people give up on them before they are clean.

Ditto on the demagnetizing. Be sure to get all of your tapes away from the player while you do that though. It can mess them up.

I love 1/4 inch reel to reel players too. They are a pain in the ass but worth it. To me they sound better than anything else (yes that's including CDs). To ME anyway. That is as long as the heads are and have been kept clean and de-magnetized and you don't play a bunch of tapes that have been played on other decks where the heads have not been kept clean and demagnetized. I have 3 of them and anytime I find a good one in good shape I buy it. Who knows how many I will have by the time I die but I hope it's a lot.