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How do I fix a squealing tape cassette?

Cassette-Hero A great tool to Apply Liquid Treament to the entire tapeI’d just like to inquire whether your tape head treatment or your tape preservative products can be used to fix squealing cassette tapes? If so, is it difficult to apply? Also, how many tapes could your standard small bottle treat?
Thanks, J.T.

[ Editor’s Update: December 2022 we released a new product meant for applying treatments to cassette tapes. The Cassette-Hero uses a custom mount with a swab and pipette with enough capacity to treat the entire tape.]

Dear J.T.,

Yes, our Magnetic Tape Treatment and Tape Head Treatment systems work very well on Cassette Tapes and Cassette Machines.  Various manufacturers have made and sold manual cassette winding mechanisms (Radio Shack, for example), that can quickly spool cassette tape past a small pad saturated with the Tape Preservative.  Personally, I use a small portable cassette player that would not play tapes but was mechanically sound.  I removed the heads and some of the plastic cover, then placed a small fixture with a felt pad where the record/playback head was.  I saturate the pad with treatment, load a cassette, and place the machine in fast wind mode. The end result is a cleaned/treated tape that performs in the system deck without squeal or instability.  I also use the Tape Head Treatment on the system deck’s heads and guides.

While it takes some ingenuity to create a workable system, the results are well worth the effort, if one has a selection of well recorded cassette tapes.

I apologize for being so wordy.  Your question is a serious one and worthy of a complete answer.

Best regards, Walter Davies

 

Thanks very much for your reply. I can see that the application procedure for the preservative might require a little DIY on my part. I was wondering how many cassettes would one bottle of preservative treat?
thanks, J.T.

While not having done a specific total count, I strongly expect in excess of 100 cassettes per 2 oz bottle of Tape Preservative.  The same bottle will treat 18-20 reels of 1/4″ x 1800 ft. tape. The per unit area involved is considerably less with 60 and 90 minute cassettes, so the overall yield should be many multiples of R-R units.

Hope this helps, Walter