21 Jul
2010
21 Jul
'10
10:44 a.m.
Still the question remains: how best to read cartridge
tapes with
faulty belts and sticky drive capstans?
Even 20 years ago, it was de rigueur to disassemble the cartridge
and replace worn or stretched or deformed rubber parts with new
or at least better components from a "donor cartridge".
When the decay had left little rubber fragments in the path you had
to take the cart apart to remove/clean them before reading anyway.
Twenty years ago, only the worst (due to extreme ozone exposure or
physical wear) carts needed this. Today the issue is that all the
donor cartridges may be 20 or 30 years old too.
Tim.