DECtape madness

[jim stephens]

On 1/13/2018 6:20 AM, Noel Chiappa via cctalk wrote:
> So why are reels of DECtape selling for unbelievable prices on eBait?
The ones in the post are from Bill Donzelli.  I'd imagine he's happy.  I 
looked at acquiring another one, but they went way high as you pointed 
out.  My friend with some of the TU-55 and TU-56's has several boxes and 
said not to bother, but I figured what the heck.

Bill didn't sell the 4 piece one.  I bought a single item last year for 
$5 bucks or so plus shipping.  I'm not sure why these have gone so high.

We are talking to a local fellow here in Los Angeles who is in the 
business of renting out a studio with ancient tape drives for production 
as needed and he has contact with a couple of guys who may be able to 
fab up heads.  We are interested in exploring that if it is feasible to 
have replacements made.  They currently make heads for the audio units 
there and could possibly make heads to any spec that is available.

I'm mainly asking around because it seems there are a lot of options for 
moving tape now days.  Media is scarce, but not unavailable. And unless 
you have NOS replacement heads that is one stopper for using original 
media with system.  I probably won't pursue it, but will at least know 
how hard the head problem is.

Thanks
Jim