8-track tapes

[Rudy]

Foam pressure pads were not a good idea either. They were prone to drying out over the years. Few had the spring-steel-backed felt pads. But you'll notice that most cassettes (certainly all of the cassettes I have ever owned) had the metal/felt pressure pads.

 

[Rudy]

At least cassettes were easier to perform surgery on...

 

[Bobberman]

At least cassettes were easier to perform surgery on...

I agree I have successfully repaired many a cassette in my time in various ways and being that I had over 1700 of them at one time ( I used to number my tapes) and it was because of those repair jobs that I still had all my old mix tapes and other important archived audio available for the inevitable transfer to digital and many of those old tapes were ready to be tossed out after the transfers and subsequent backup copies and everything was preserved and is still usable

 

[Murray]

I agree I have successfully repaired many a cassette in my time in various ways and being that I had over 1700 of them at one time ( I used to number my tapes) and it was because of those repair jobs that I still had all my old mix tapes and other important archived audio available for the inevitable transfer to digital and many of those old tapes were ready to be tossed out after the transfers and subsequent backup copies and everything was preserved and is still usable

Years ago, I transferred a handful of cassettes to digital, and it took so long (particularly splitting the large files into individual tracks) that I gave up. Now I've got a little more spare time, so I decided to give this project another shot - only to discover that none of my cassette players work anymore. The belts in all of them are shot.

I looked into replacing the belts in my best deck, a Sony that was top of the line when I bought it in the mid '90s. The only place I could source the belts was from a supplier in Slovenia - for $45 + shipping! It's a good thing I didn't order them... I opened the deck to see if I could get the old belts out first, and discovered that there was a broken (nylon) gear in the eject mechanism. Good luck finding that part.

With my other two decks, a Technics and a Kenwood, I'm going to try using rubber bands, from an assorted bag I got at the dollar store. If that doesn't work, I'll probably throw my tapes in the garbage.

 

[Rudy]

There are a lot of guys over at AudioKarma who own and work on cassette decks--they could probably help with sources for the various parts. Some will buy non-working decks just for parts also. I'm lucky that I own a decent deck (Harman/Kardon CD301) that still works well.

I have a couple of large boxes of cassettes, but really haven't used them. With cassettes having a resurgence, I will probably sell off what I have (I have a couple dozen blank tapes, and a few dozen pre-recorded). I have a small number I recorded myself that I need to get stored in digital format.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Cassettes are having a resurgence now?! I guess all the 8-tracks are out of style again!

 

[Rudy]

They've been getting popular over the last couple of years. It's a good time to dump the collection actually. I'd dump the pre-recorded reels, but I got rid of every one of those turds years ago.

 

[TallPaulInKy]

8-tracks really held on for a while longer since surprisingly, truckers still used them quite a bit.

According to 8 track collectors (yes there is such a thing) the last 8 tracks were manufactured by record clubs like Columbia and Capitol. When a person signed up with the club you picked the format you wanted your music in, so even albums on major labels that never issued on 8 track, you can sometimes find the "club edition."