Here is a 'how to' video about keeping your tape heads clean and demagnetized. There is a lot of bad info floating around on this subject and I wanted to set the record straight. :) JC
We're well into 2020 and i still listen to audio tapes on a daily basis, not sure how many out there that still actively so it but there is still folks out there who keep them going!
A well recorded cassette on good tape can sound just as good as a CD or other digital stuff. Also, no need to convert to other formats if you are happy with what you have. Why change if it is already great? And reel-to-reel still beats everything to this day, but is very expensive and unobtainable for most.
I'd like to mention how professional and well spoken you are in this video. I typically go through several videos when searching for help for a situation due to many being hard to understand or just plain frustrated to follow. This is much appreciated.
Thank you very much for this guide. I've used Walkmans for a long time but just bought a Technics last week, very thorough and well explained - very surprised you're still helping people out on this video after 10 years!
I realize it’s been 10 years since you posted this video, and not sure if you’re checking comments still, but just in case...thank you very much!!! I just purchased my first tape deck (an early 90s Sony TC-WR700), and there was a lot of noise on playback. Cleaned as best I could with the 91% alcohol, and used a Marphar Head Demagnetizer I bought on Amazon for $20. Playback sounds great now!! Only the slightest bit of normal tape hiss is detectable. Very helpful video. Thank you again. Cheers!
The original cassette player in my older volvo just started playback with a much muffled sound. Your explanation was very helpful to me, and I thank you for a superb tutorial. It is authors such as yourself that make you tube a valuable learning tool.
This is great info presented in an excellent, easy to understand, yet not overbearing manner. One thing I would add is to perform any demagnetizing far away from any prerecorded tapes. Thanks for this!
i have been into finding and collecting,and refurbishing cassettes with 80's style "boomboxes" and this channel kick ass in helping me to better understand my newly found hobby. Thanks for the info🖒
Very valuable info. You can still buy brand new tape recorders and tape from Bush in the UK at Argos and Sainsburys in 2021 so this info is still useful. I recently got a 2nd hand Sony TCM-939 portable and have been following these instructions (it's been so long I forgot how to do it) but I never demagnetized the heads in the 80s and 90s.
Nice tutorial on cleaning cassette decks. My hat is off to you sir. Back in the day we never thought of cleaning them wirhout the cassette tape for cleaning heads. Thank you.
thank you so much my dad gave me this old tape recorder and i have been using it for about a year and i could never get good sound out of it but after this video i gave the heads a good clean and now it works wonderfully
This is a good intro to tape transport care - besides the comment about issues with using head cleaner on rubber parts mentioned elsewhere, the other thing I'd add is professional cleaning swabs are NOT a waste of money. They are longer for better reach, have lower lint/are wrapped more tightly than q-tips and you need to keep them in the bag they come in to keep them clean until you use them and avoid touching the tip you are going to use to clean the transport. Getting dirt and oil from your skin on something you are going to use to clean delicate equipment is not a good idea and using cleaning solutions designed for the job is a good idea.
You've provided a lot of good information here. I recently picked up a Technics M63 three head cassette deck and found the capstan was covered with a rather heavy coating of oxide. It looked almost like it had rusted, it was so bad. I used alcohol and a Q tip and was going nowhere fast when I decided to use my fingernail to scrape the brown oxide off. That worked very well and the cleaning process went much quicker. I then went over the capstan with the alcohol and Q tip to get any small particles I missed. I have an old TDK demagnetiser cassette I used on the head, but I really should demagnetise the capstan, like your video showed. This deck now sounds very nice and works very well. Regards, Tom
Yes. As long as the tip of the probe is covered with rubber there's no chance of damaging the heads. Some older demagnetizers have metal probes that would scratch the heads if they came in contact while they were energized. JC
Thank you. To me this is still very educational. I have been an audio/hi fi/video hobbyist since 1959. I am actually more interested in demagnetizing the tape heads. I have two rather old cassette decks that I am using to burn my cassette tapes onto CD's so this helps.
@olderngod I'm glad you found the video useful. If you are not having any problem with your machines and you're not allowing them to be close to anything putting out a strong magnetic field then you most likely don't have to worry much about degaussing the heads. I mainly do it when I get a used machine and I don't know where it's been. After that, I do it maybe once in five years, if that. :) JC
Your video was very informative and very thorough. Well instructed and very easy to follow along. You sir... are a man who knows how to teach and for that. I THANK YOU. Great GREAT instructive video.
You can achieve different sound color or texture with a tape recorder. Especially if you let it distort a bit, it gives a different sound then digital distortion. You can use it for instance to record a song on a computer then run the final recording through a tape machine so you get that tape coloring that most times is better then the digital emulations and then record that back into the computer again.
I have a Sony tc-we435 and I am still using mine on a daily basis. Just cleaned my heads and demagnetized them. Listening to my George Strait Greatest hits vol 2 and it still plays and sounds great!!!
@Mico284 The tape has either gotten overheated and is damaged or the transformer in the amp partially erased it with its magnetic field. There's not much that you can do to fix it but you should try playing it back in as many decks as you can get your hands on and which ever one gives the best image should be used to get a copy of the tape. :) JC
@MrChroissant Sounds like a mechanical issue. You'll have to pull the player out and open it up to see what's going on. The cleaning process s the same for car players. It's a bit more of a pain, though, since you have to drag the whole thing out of the dash to get to it. You can use a wet cleaning tape to maintain it but you gotta yank it and really clean it once in a while. :) JC
@MacPhantom You can get a wet system cleaning cassette to do regular cleanings. That way, you'll only have to open up the deck every once in a while to clean it. That's how I maintain the tape deck in the car. :) JC
I like this one... I got it from MCM Electronics. Radio Shack used to make some nice one's too. I see them on eBay every now and then but the new ones are relatively cheap and one like this should last you a lifetime. :) JC
I've never heard of this procedure before. Traditionally, you bring the demagnetizer tip in slowly with it turned on. You sweep the head(s) or metal parts back and forth with the tip for five seconds without touching anything. For each piece you do, you back away from that piece to like a meter away before you shut off the unit. Rinse & repeat for each piece you demag.
I got the Audio brand head demagnetizer 400 and it still works after I plugged in. I demagnetized these heads on both reel-to-reel tape recorders including my Akai 1721W and my Concord 220T and it does the job done since I moved slowly to demagnetize the recording and erase heads without getting it touched, so that it won’t damage any of the heads. I have to leave the machine off or unplug while I’m demagnetizing the heads.
@neantradical Since only one track is giving you trouble, I would say the heads are very dirty or there is a misalignment between the erase head and the record/play head. Demagnetizing is a good thing to do but I don't think it will solve the problem. Heavily magnetized heads have a tendency to add noise to tape and can actually partially erase a tape after several plays... They ordinarily do not prevent a machine from erasing tape completely. Clean the heads and see if that helps. :) JC
@hohum83 That myth about the alcohol damaging the pinch roller just doesn't have a leg to stand on. Alcohol won't damage rubber unless you leave it to soak for a long time. You should clean until the swap comes back clean. It really takes a lot of juice to properly demag,. I don't know if the cassette kind generates enough power to get the job done... Anything is better than nothing, though. :) JC
Thanks! The Sony would be a good choice as long as the noise level is low enough. Sometimes you'll get hum or buzz in the signal from portable machines. If you have access to more than one cassette machine, I'd plug them all in and see which one sounds best. A mono player would be good if your family tapes were recorded in mono... There are a few mono portables on the market now that you can get for cheap. You may want to consider getting one of those. :) JC
Back in the day, I would carry a head cleaning cassette w a small bottle of alcohol with my cassettes. I wouldn't put one of my cassettes in someone's car deck without cleaning it first. I used Q-tips on home decks. I still have cassettes of old progressive rock radio shows from the 60's and from my all time fav Jazz radio station, KRE in Berkeley, which I play every year at X-Mas to keep them in good shape. I have transferred many to digital. Good radio stations come and go; WSHE, WRVG, KFAT, ETC. Some once great stations were neutered by AOR like KSAN & WEBN for instance.
Thank you very much for this video! I’ll have to clean my tape deck (a Technics from a small stereo system "SC-HD 350“), and now I know how to do it. I hope it’ll work, because the tape deck sounds VERY muffled (there’s no more treble in the sound). The deck, however, is closed up and it has like a slot-loading interface, so I’ll have to open it up…
So if I can ask a question, I've got a Portastudio 424 MKIII. Works great, but channels 3-4 have big problems with recording and playback. Almost no sound at all, no matter what I do with with the channel faders and master volume. I'm new, do I need to just clean the heads do think?
im having a couple of issues with my tape deck... im wondering if you can help me. 1st:when i rewind tapes it works while the tape is half way but as one of the reels start geting emptier it starts slowing down and just stops. 2nd: when i play tapes on the 2nd deck, the deck litraly starts damaging/breaking the tape. how can i fix these issues???
*winding the tape around them. I was worried it might be a bad belt which is something I had no idea how to fix, but thanks to you I'm pretty sure I just need to clean it... My radio hack ca
Thanks for the video. I bought a boom box on eBay identical to one I had as a kid out of pure nostalgia. The decks work, but the pinch rollers were sticky and were win
@neantradical Aliening erase heads is tricky... I'd just start looking for a new machine because if it constantly slipping out of whack that's an indication of a mechanical weakness in the system and it will just keep doing it. :) JC
That has been the way my father told me how to clean tape heads when I was 7 , and I was happyer with that method then the cleaning tape . I did learn somthing about demagnatizing in this video thouigh .
@1Kchess Turning off the demagnetizer while it's close to the heads or pulling it away very quickly will leave a magnetic charge that you might not be able to get rid of. This defeats the purpose of demagnetizing completely. :) JC
Great video! I have about 20 family audio tapes from between 1968 and 1978. I want to record on my laptop, then compress to MP3 (for portability). I will make sure to keep the original WAV audio backed up as well. I plan on using a Sony Sports Walkman which is about 20 y/o, but has had light usage. I want to make sure it's good quality though since this will probably be the last time these tapes are ever played! Do you think using a portable is a bad idea? What would you recommend for low $?
August 2021 and I use and love audio cassette tapes, I record all my "old school of heavy metal bands " (end of the 60s to middle of the 70s) and N.W.O.B.H.M. bands (1979 to 1985) onto cassettes and they sound great and loud (too bad for my neighbours).
@btown2011 Acetone was recommended for some early recorders that had all metal parts in the tape path bu8t it will eat a modern machines plastic parts. You really don't need to demag for each recording. Once a year is plenty. :) JC
A much easier way to de-mag the heads is with a TDK HD-01 cassette head demagnetizer. You have to change the battery every few years but it is simple. Just pop in the cassette shaped demagnetizer, press play and a little light will go on when done. I've had my HD-01 for over 35 years and it works.
great info JC. At work we repair data recording tape drives. Most of them currently use a ceramic hear with iron or ferite cores. Theses are seriously tiny. Wuold this help with high error rates? Also, could a tape deegousser be used to demagnatise the read write heads?
2009 Radio Shack still had a lot of neat stuff, nowdays my Radio Shack is getting rid of a lot of things it's not the same store anymore since Sprint took them over.
Hi there. I have a Pioneer CT-1080R and a Teac V-30 cassette deck. After I cleaned the heads, the pinch rollers and the capstans (I'm using 70% Isopropyl alcohol for this) and letting them dry, my tapes sound very raspy on these decks, although I did notice some cracks on the pinch rollers. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Any advice?
Hello I have a Tascam 488 that I’ve been diving into for the past couple weeks, everything seems to be working fine except when you go to record something. when listening back to what you just recorded, the playback is nothing except a faint static gurgling noise. Would this fix the issue or is it something else?
Thank you for this demonstration. I am elderly and have a hearing problem, and I appreciate your perfect diction. So few people know how to speak these days. I have several tape decks and have always maintained them with the denatured alcohol cleaning and the cleaning cassette. They sound fine. If i'm having no problems, is there any need to demagnetize? I have a bit of a tremor in my right hand and would be scaared of doing more harm than good with a demagnetizer!
Nearly 15 years alter and this is still a great video. Would you consider doing a follow up/sequel and actually show us how to use a demagnetizer in video form and not just stills?
My cousin put a fridge magnet inside my grandmother's tape deck when we were kids. Me and him lived in town but it took a month and a half for my uncle to be there for Christmas and figure out why her tapes were getting so weak and staticky
Hi, thanks a lot for this nice video and advice. You have lots of experience, can I ask you a question - I love these old stuff Boombox and Deck players. I like repairing them and bringing back to live even not in everyday use in this digital world. But it happened to me that after changing belts of my Sony FH-B170, decks got live after 25 years but 2-3 minutes later started some crazy pitching noise. Both decks do the same. After pressing Stop, it dissapears. Belts are new but what would cause such noise? I can send it to hear, any idea? Thanks in advance, cheers.
Nice! I have a B&O Beocord 5000 cassette player and it worked perfectly just some months ago then I haven't used it. Just moved it. For some reason when I turn it on, now the capstan is spinning when power on? and when I press in a tape it tries to play and 1 sec after it just shuts off? Any idea why?? All the best!
@BadEditPro yes i think its a desalignement too, one day i dropped it to the ground and it did the same thing, i dropped it at the local shop so he repair it, then it was cool and then after a lot of time it started back to go wrong, is it easy to re-align it myself, or should i just get a new one or make it repair again? thanks.
Just a few additions: 1. When demagnetizingdegaussing make sure that you are nowhere near speakers, audio equipment, credit cards or anything else that can be affected by the magnetic field of a demagnetizer (take your wallet out of your pocket, and leave it in another room!) 2. One should run the demagnetizer over the transport mechanism in one direction (the direction of travel of the tape)..... 3. Tape cleaning fluid can dry out the rubber roller - specific cleaners are available.
@BadEditPro Thanks for the info about demagnetizing, you say that moving the demagnetiser too quickly can cause problems, what sort of problems can this cause and can permenant damage be caused by this?
Not sure if this is on topic or not, but do magnetic phonograph cartridges need to be demagnetized as well? Heard some people do that to remove excess noise.
Hello, This is very informative video about cleaning your heads and parts. What is the model's name of your demagnetizer in this video? Can you provide the brand mane of this tool and the link where I can find this tool. Can I use the same demagnetizer for my Nakamichi CR2 and Uher CG356 Thanks for your help
Rarely, it can happen that you got a build up of magnetized material on the pinch roller that will leave clinks on a tape. I have personally only seen it happen once, though. It may well be some other issue. :)
Hello, I have a problem...When I play a cassette there is some distortion that comes from the right speaker on side A but side B plays perfectly. What can I do to eliminate that distortion?Thanks.
My Texas instruments recorder ate a good bit of a tape, though it's the only tape it's eaten, it's always relatively clean, would the tape just be dirty in that case?
Thanks for an excellent guide! I have a small DIY cassette label and copy all the tapes myself. How often would you recommend me to clean the heads? I only use new tapes when i dub them. I use a Technics RS-B665.
Hi joe, thank you for your video. I cleaned my YAMAHA MT4X Multitrack Cassette Recorder with hopes that it would fix the "high pitch buzz" (not feedback) sound that exists when I playback any and all cassette tape. A high frequency sits slightly louder than the music being played back. Unfortunately, cleaning my heads didn't fix my issue. I recently bought this 4track mixer from eBay... Please tell me I didn't get duped! Ha Much thanks, JW3
One caution about demagnetizing erase heads. If your machine has an electrically energized erase head, then yes, demagnetize it like you would a play or record head, guide, capstan, etc. HOWEVER... Some consumer machines, especially portables, use a permanent magnet erase head. The mechanism moves it into contact with the tape only in Record mode, and retracts it away from the head otherwise. DO NOT demagnetize this type of erase head. Otherwise, you will no longer be able to erase a tape prior to recording on it. The ways to tell are to look for wires connected to the erase head, and observe the movement of the erase head when transitioning from Stop to Play or Record.
