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Subject: Re: [Mellotronists] demag -- measuring success?

From: Ken Leonard <ken@...>
Date: 2004-06-04

At 11:22 AM 6/4/2004 +0000, tmoravan wrote:
>OK - before I replace these worn out tapes, how do I know if I did a
>thorough job demagnetizing the tape heads?

Hmmm...First of all, is there any high end to wipe out on one of these
things? ;-)

For years I have used a Teac demagger I got at Guitar Center, but I have
also taken care not to magnetize the heads by plugging the heads into the
preamp without shorting the preamp first (#805 needs the 47K resistor
treatment). Most of the time I'll demag anyway just because. So far, so
good. I guess I "just do it" without worrying whether it's "done" or
not. If the thing is buzzing, it must be doing something, right? :-)

Yeah, screwing up a set of tapes would suck...

Note that "screeching cable rot"
(http://www.kleonard.com/gear/tronecdo.htm) could certainly cause problems
in this regard. If it has not been done, replace the cable going from the
preamp to the head block with new cable---the wire turns to dust after a
while and begins to fail intermittently...shudder...

...kl...
M400 #805 - needs to get buzzed
M400 #1037 - has the 47k treatment courtesy of 50y.o.jk


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