Hey Grant, good for you! Sometimes when I make posts like that, I'm speaking to all the folks in Tape Project-dom-ville.
I definitely can relate to collecting tape. Thought about that as I looked through that guys store. I'd really like to get hold of some of the
really-really old stuff. Like Scotch/3M 111. Or some of the BASF that was slit for use in a Magnetophone (somebodies dreamin' here).
But, back to sticky shed.
Nope, I believe that 478 was produced long after Ampex discovered the binder problem and went back to the "long molecule" binders that aren't so prone to hydrolysis. For future reference there's a table I posted in the Beginner's Guide with the tapes with known SSS issues.
http://www.tapeproject.com/smf/index.php/topic,595.15.htmlBTW, there are several recordists out there that love the "sound" of particular tape formulations. Back in the 70's when I had a ReVox A77, tape could be bought all over the place and I ended up with a real hodgepodge of tapes. I had a case of Scotch "GrandMaster", some TDK Auda (sp?), some BASF and Maxell UD. I didn't like the TDK, but the other 3 seemed to
like different types of music. At the time I totally thought it was all in my head but now I realize that it was probably true. The Scotch seemed very liquid and smooth while the BASF was fast and could sometimes be a little edgy. The Maxell was more of a balance of these two. Of course, these impressions are fogged by 4 decades of god knows what, but they were different sounding even when I thought that tape was tape.
I'll never forget when I was shopping for the GrandMaster tape (I think I'd seen the ad in Audio and I just had to try some of the
new backcoated stuff) and I called a place and asked the sales guy if they carried Scotch tape. He said "only at Christmas time" laughed and hung up on me. Man that pissed me off. But they were the only ones that had it in stock at that time and I had to go in and buy a case from them! Oh,.. the things we do for our hobbies!