vals38•19d ago

I finally stopped rewinding my tapes twice after a thrift store clerk set me straight

Last weekend I was at a St. Vinnies in Portland and this old guy running the electronics section saw me grab a copy of The Rock and start rewinding it by hand. He just shook his head and said 'you're grinding the gears doing that twice as much, you know.' I had always heard you should rewind and then fast forward again to loosen the tape before playing it. But he showed me a chewed up tape from his bin where the sprockets were all worn down from that exact habit. Now I just do one slow rewind before playing and my tapes actually run smoother without that crunching sound. Anyone else get bad advice that ended up wearing out your collection?

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1 Comment

blair_davis19d ago

Holy crap, wait. People actually did that? Fast forward AND rewind before playing? That's insane to me. I just always popped the tape in and let it play, never thought about it twice. I can see how spinning the reels extra would chew up the tape guides over time, though. I've got a copy of Dark Side of the Moon I've played maybe a hundred times that still sounds clean as a whistle because I never messed with it. But now I'm curious if I've been slowly wrecking my tapes without knowing it. That clerk probably saved you a bunch of headaches down the road.