I've been reading this site (as well as several others) forever now, but haven't posted. I've been recording since around 1975, and have used and/or owned just about every deck out there and have used and/or tried just about every tape that was reasonably available. My favorite since around 1993 has been 3m 996. Up until this week I thought it pretty much indestructible. I've sadly found out that it's not, and I've stockpiled hundreds of them NOS.
About four years ago, I posted on the Internet regarding how ziplock bag/silica gel storage ruined some of my tapes. To make a long story short, I had hundreds of reels stored with silica gel in ziplock bags in a south Louisiana non-climate-controlled storage where 90-100% humidity is the norm. These tapes were stored for 6 YEARS basically outside. Some survived, some didn't (the worst were Basf/Emtec 900/911/486 which grew some of the worst and strangest mold I've ever seen and were not salvageable). In 2007, two brands that survived virtually unscathed were all types of Maxells and 3m 996. 3m 966 suffered some strange "warping" to the tape pack that was never eradicated. But, 996 astounded me, as every single tape was completely undamaged by mold, humidity, temperature, and the worst storage situation imaginable...for 6 years. Here is a link to a thread I started about the situation in 2007:
http://www.audiobanter.com/showthrea...t=88926&page=1
Fast forward to 2011. After I "rescued" all these tapes from this storage-scenario-hell, I meticulously restored them, eradicating all mold from boxes, tape, and reels from the ones that required such. I painstakingly basically hand polished each tape itself with miles of pellon cloth until every affected tape played with no shed, no sticking, no problems. I threw away all the old ziplock bags, silica gel, and inner plastic bags. I purchased new 4 mil bags from bagsunlimited (unsealed) for the reels and boxes (I wasn't doing the ziplock sealed thing again), new packets of silica gel (with packs placed in the inner plastic bag next to the reels themselves, in the boxes themselves, and in the outer bags the boxes were placed in), and stored the tapes properly, climate-controlled, in my home. Sounds good, right?
Well, nearly all the tapes are FINE. Even some 1994 Ampex 456 reels that HAD gone sticky in 2007 from being outside that I "fixed" using my controversial "Nu-Finish" method STILL play with NO shed and NO signs of stickiness...even Sony ULH that I "Nu-Finish'd" show no signs of sticky shed. But, that's not the point. The point is...
3m 996 HAS GONE STICKY.
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I honestly don't understand it. The tapes were OUTSIDE for 6 years, and were FINE. Not a SIGN of stickiness. I bring them into the PROPER storage conditions, and four years later of being treated to not the least BIT of humidity, they go STICKY??!?? How?!?!?! I even wrote in 2007 regarding 996 after the storage debacle:
"BTW...this has been the absolute BEST test for binder/sticky shed
problems with later 3m 996/966 tape...this stuff is STABLE to the max
(the binder at least)! BTW...I'm literally in the swamps of south
Louisiana. 100+ degrees and 99% humidity for years. The tapes have
been in an outside non-climate controlled storage unit, and have been
through several hurricanes (don't ask why). Most notably Rita and
Katrina. However...gotta hand it to Maxell. That tape is absolutely
undamaged and perfect. Sitting unwrapped/unprotected and wet. No
binder issues, no mold, no packing issues, no uneven tape, no
NOTHING. I've always heard great reliability cudos regarding Basf/
Emtec, but they are by far the worst "survivors" of this. I'll post
info on other tapes as I open them and experience problems.
3m 996 has no sticky shed problems whatsoever. Even after 10 or
so passes through a cleaning cloth with moderate pressure, there is
next to NO oxide binder, or backcoating shedding of ANY kind, not even
the "normal" amount you would expect. Out of dozens of reels, only
one has a bad spot to where the growth is being stubborn to remove."
I just don't understand it. I DO understand and expect horrible storage conditions for 6 years in constant heat and humidity to cause stickiness, mold, and general destruction for audio tapes. But, these 996 tapes (and others, most notably Maxell) survived being outside with absolutely NO ILL EFFECTS upon discovery. Now, 4 years later, in absolute PERFECT storage conditions, the 996 tapes become sticky? NONE of the other tapes, even the ones KNOWN for sticky shed, have gone sticky after being stored in the EXACT same conditions (both good and bad since 2001) as the 996. Why has the 996 gone sticky NOW?
I need to state that the stickiness isn't as damning as typical sticky shed in the following way. Most sticky shed R/T Ampex 456, Scotch Classic, Sony ULH, etc exhibits SO much "goo" that trying to pass the tape fast winding through pellon cloth basically ruins the tape; i.e., you do more damage than good. You can't "wipe" the sticky goo off. However, the state that the 996 is in right NOW, you CAN use pellon to wipe the stickiness off, with NO chemicals needed. I simply fast wind the tape back and forth (with NO guides in play, as the 996 exhibits enough sticky shed to gum up the machine and stop the tape) holding the pellon cloth only on the back-coated side for about an hour or so, until there is absolutely NO residue on the pellon cloth. Since this is on the back-coated side, any undamaged backcoating that comes off as a result of removing the goo doesn't matter . This is where MOST of the residue is. Then, I do the same to the oxide side of the tape, but for about half the time. I continue until there is a minimal or "normal" amount of oxide shed on the pellon (similar to what you'd get with a new tape), then I do a few runs using the "pinch both sides" method using hardly any pressure. This method, with the state the 996 is in right now, makes the tapes playable as if nothing ever happened. With normal or classic sticky shed, the goo is too great to correct in this way...which gives me a bit of hope. The 996 is shedding, and it's shedding "stick-illy," but not to an extreme point just yet. Will it get as bad as 456/Classic/ULH? Possibly, possibly not. There is no way of knowing. What I DO know is that for some unknown reason, the tape survived 6 years of basically being outside in the swamp with no signs of sticky shed. Subsequently, stored properly and untouched for 4 years inside a climate controlled home (basically the complete opposite conditions of the previous 4 years), and 996 has gone sticky.
Phruck.
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