Are you a fan of music on tape? Ever buy a cassette only to find that the music seems garbled, subdued or fast? Ever have a cassette play fine, but when you got to the end, the tape just rolled off the supply hub and disappeared into the cassette? There can be a number of reasons for these types of failures, but the good news is that you can repair a few of these problems. Below are a few tips on how to identify a few problems and what to do about them.

HELPFUL HINT: Never throw away a defective cassette. If the tape is still good, it can be transferred to another cassette. If the tape is bad, then the casing, or the parts in it, may be used to correct problems with other cassettes.

HELPFUL TOOLS: Superglue, tweezers, toothpicks, Q-Tips, acetone (nail polish remover), lighter fluid, Goof Off.

Tapes are often damaged by the devices they are played in. In many cases the tape will jam and crumple up accordion style. If this happens, that part of the tape is probably damaged beyond normal repair. However, you can take a large eraser tip, stick it into the tape hub, manually advance the tape past the damaged area, and continue play the tape. You can do this just to play other songs on the cassette, but it will fail again when you flip the tape over and get back to the damaged area. The only reason I would advance a tape in such a fashion, would be to record the undamaged songs onto a new tape. Another way to play tapes damaged in this manner would be to purchase a dual capstan player. The tape is kept taught between the two capstans, while being played, and therefore tends to compensate for tape damaged in this manner. Dual capstan decks are expensive and may not be a feasible solution.

If your tape sounds funny, remove it from the player immediately and inspect the tape. The tape should look fairly smooth. Damaged edges, or a crease/scratch in the tape, could be indications of trouble. The next thing to look for is the pressure pad. Look at the center section of the tape's bottom edge. You should see tape running out one side of the cassette and into the other. Dead center there should be a pressure pad. It is located under the tape. It looks like a square piece of felt/foam, which should be glued to a thin piece of metal. This pad pushes the tape against the read head when the play button/lever is hit. Too much pressure and the tape will drag or break. Not enough pressure and the tape may sound fast, muddy or just plain weird. 80% of the tape problems I run into are due to the felt/foam pad falling off the metal piece. Repairing this problem is fairly simple assuming you found the original pad, possibly stuck inside the pressure pad well, in the cassette casing, or in the tape well of your deck. Assuming you found the original pad, or have a spare from a previously scrapped cassette, proceed as follows.

Rewind your tape to one end or the other, so that the leader is present at the bottom of the cassette. Use a toothpick, or any similar smooth, thin object, and pull the leader up from the center section of the cassette. This will expose the metal bar below. Use the toothpick to place a drop of superglue onto the center of the metal hub. Use the toothpick to spread the glue evenly across the surface onto which the pad will be placed. (The center is usually larger than the right or left side) The pad must then be placed onto the glue in the center section and then gently pressed down. Use tweezers, or similar tool, to drop the pad onto the glue and to adjust it's position before the glue sets. (To see how the pad should sit/look, just look at any other tape in your collection) Allow ample time for the glue to dry/set. If you aren't in any particular rush, let the glue dry for several hours. Be careful not to press down too hard when placing the pad. If you bend the metal bar, the pad will be too far away to work properly. You can bend the bar back into position, but after repeated bending, the bar will break. Be sure to use the original pad, or one just like it from the kit you made saving up the pieces from other damaged cassettes. (get the hint?) Once glue has dried, use an eraser, or similar device, and rewind leader backdown onto the hub. The tape should be ready to go.

NOTE: Great care must be used when applying any of the products listed in the next section. All of the fluids listed below could destroy/melt the actual recording tape within the cassette if they were to come into contact with it. Additionally, these products will remove/erase the printed text from your cassette. Therefore Q-Tips should be damp, but not dripping wet, and applied only to the affected area. If any of these products are applied to the stick on labels that older cassettes use, the labels may bubble.

Sometimes, cassettes or their casings have sticker residue or writing on them. Sticker residue can be easily removed with lighter fluid and a Q-Tip. Wet tip with fluid and rub across residue until it is gone. If removing a sticker, it is recommended that you wipe the soaked Q-Tip across the sticker until it can be scraped/pulled away, then you can clean the residue. Acetone (nail polish remover) and Q-Tips can be used to remove some writing and residue. Another helpful product is called Goof Off. This too can remove certain types of ink/stains.

One last odd symptom is that your tape will play normally on one side, but won't play well, or at all, on the other side. It is possible that the cassette is warped. Lay the cassette on flat surface and inspect. Turn over and inspect again. Check both sides for excessive wobble. If cassette is warped, the tape must be removed from the warped cassette and transplanted to a new cassette. Not a simple job and therefore not addressed here.

CARE NOTES: Recording tape can be adversely affected by extreme heat/cold, humidity and dust. Alway rewind or forward your tape to the end, so that the actual tape is safely stored within the cassette housing. Alway place tapes into protective casings. New casings are available on line at a cost of roughly .35 cents a casing, with discounts for bulk purchases. I do not recommend leaving tapes in cars, as the temperatures within such vehicles can reach temperatures that are devasting for the tape. Likewise, within your home, cassettes should not be placed anywhere where the sun/heat/cold will affect them directly. I recommend having a few tapes on hand for testing. For instance, if you think your deck/device is trashing tapes, you don't want to use your prized Beatles tape to test it. Pick up a few cheap tapes at a garage sell or flea market and use them to test your deck. But be sure you pre-test these tapes to insure that they are good, before you set them aside as potential test tapes.

More complex problems will be dealt with in REPAIRING CASSETTE TAPES 2 - COMPLEX FIXES. (pending)