Hello, Phillip,
With the caveat that SSS and SBS (see below) may or may not occur on
any given reel of tape within a specific time frame, due partially to
storage conditions, and partially to manufacturing batch control
issues, I present the following comments.
SBS stands for Soft Binder Syndrome -- of which SSS may be a subset,
although SSS is also plagued with the back-coating binder softening
and often shedding more than the mag coating as the mag particles
offer some reinforcement to the mag coating which the carbon black in
the back coating doesn't offer.
At 06:53 PM 2007-01-16, phillip holmes wrote:
Is there any record of TDK Audua LB-1800 suffering from SSS? It's
"back treated", which I assume is the same as "back coated". I don't
remember discussions about that particular tape. I have 25 7" reels
of recitals, air checks and such.
Audua is in a class which may suffer from SBS and/or SSS. If it's
squealing and/or shedding and doesn't respond to baking then it is SBS
and not SSS (SSS by general consensus responds to baking). I would be
careful until I knew more. I think I've heard that Audua may be at
risk, but my one reel is not. Take it slow.
Also Maxell XLI 35-90B. It's back coated. Just one reel.
I've used hundreds of reels of Maxell UD35 which was not back coated
and I've only had the problem of its oxide laminating to the 3M
plastic leader tape...I have not heard of Maxell back-coated tapes
suffering from SSS, but that is not definitive.
Then three reels of TDK LX35-90B, back coated for sure.
I would put this in the same risk as Audua. TDK has been robust in
cassettes, but some of their DATs were horrid.
One reel of Ampex UD150 (says Ultra Dynamic 150--no box). It looks
back coated, but I don't recognize the number as being a SSS culprit.
Haven't heard of it.
Three reels of Ampex Grand Master 457. Am I correct in saying that
457 is a thinner (for more time) version of 456 and WILL get sticky
sooner or later?
Yes! 457 is the 1-mil version of 456. I would suggest baking.
Please report back what you find.
Cheers,
Richard
Richard L. Hess email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX
Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm
Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.