54 TK50 tapes on eBay

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2015-05-19 09:23, Arno Kletzander wrote:
> Johnny Billquist <bqt at update.uu.se> wrote:
>> The TK50 normally do not gum up. There are two problems with them, and
>> those problems have been around since day 1.
>> The first one is that the heads get dirty. Cleaning with isopropanol or
>> similar with a lint-free pad solves that just fine.
>> The second problem is that the tape pickup gets unhinged. Remove the
>> covers and then you can fix that easily.
>
> So much for "YMMV": jkunz and I must have had some really bad tapes back
> then at the VCFe a couple of years ago. When we tried to read them (in
> a TK70, I think - does that make the difference?), they slowed down the
> mechanism, produced a squealing sound and stuck to the head to the point
> where in some cases the tape (carrier) broke in some cases. We did clean
> the head and tape guide parts with IPA several times only to get the
> same problem again. I'm sure he can elaborate a bit more about the tapes
> and the equipment used but I think I have it mostly correct.

Wow. That is definitely YMMV then. I've never seen that happen anywhere, 
and I occasionally still work with TK50s. (Even professionally.)

	Johnny

-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                   ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se             ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol