Ampex - Sticky Shed Syndrome

Sticky Shed Syndrome

Some master tapes and other recordings predominantly from the 1970s and 1980s have degraded, due to the so-called "sticky Shed Syndrome" : the binder deteriorates, resulting in the magnetic coating coming off the base and either sticking to the backing of the tape layer wound on top of it (resulting in dropout), or getting scraped off and deposited on the tape heads (lifting the head off the tape, degrading the treble).

Shed on guide Sticky shed from 1/4" Ampex 456 tape on the tape head and tape guide of a Technics RS-1500

The problem has been reported on a number of makes of tape (usually tapes with a back coating), including Ampex tapes.

Ampex filed a patent (number 5,236,790) for a baking process ("A typical temperature used is 54'C. and a typical effective time is 16 hours") to attempt to recover such tapes, allowing them to be played once more and the recordings transferred to new media. The problems have been reported on tapes of type 406/407, 456/457, 2020/373.

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