Paper leader anyone?

[ceved]

Steve,
Thanks for the short round.
I had another retort which was a bit saltier, but in deference to our more genteel correspondents I will leave that for you to ponder.
Take my reel please!
Quick note lest you think I forgot, a request for a catalog or two accompanied our order.
I should mention in fairness to the folks at Tape Makers that I earned more than my share of credit for the duration of the transaction.
The folks, Art in particular were and are most helpful.
Be forewarned that Art is on an abbreviated work schedule; so keep at it.  He is worth the wait.

[Scott D. Smith]

The whole leader issue is one that I have struggled with over the years. In the midwest, we used to encounter some real problems with the static issue during the winter months, even in studios with humidity control.

When I ran a large facility downtown, we had in-duct humidifiers on all the air handlers, and could get the RH up to 30% in the dead of winter, but then had condensation on all the windows!

My only complaint about paper leader is that, to the best of my knowledge, none of it is acid-free. We have had archival tapes come through our facility where the paper leader has turned brown as a result, which with acetate based tapes is never a good thing. In addition, I have had problems with the splicing tape not adhering well.

So, for the time being, I have been sticking with plastic leader for any tapes that are headed for an archive, but still prefer paper for the static control.

I had approached the engineers at 3M once about making a back-coated style leader tape to help with static control, but it never went anywhere.

[ironbut]

Hi Scott, this leader is supposed to be acid free as part of it's archival grading. I'll give a sample a pH test to see. Some backcoated tapes can have problems with the backcoating losing lubricants and sticking to the oxide (probably a worse case though). So maybe it's a good thing that 3M never honored your request.

[Scott D. Smith]

Hi Steve,

It would indeed be interesting to know the PH, if you can do a sample. In any event, I may be interested for some other projects. BTW, I have in fact seen quite a few cases where the back-coating delaminated and stuck to the oxide (mostly on Ampex tape).

--Scott 

[Ben]

I guess one other advantage a paper leader has ... you can write on it.
Only one the used tapes I bought had a leader and it broke off. Oddly
it says 'audiotape' every 7 1/2 inches . (A 7.5 IPS tape).  Did leaders often have
writeing on them? This is for 3 out 3 Ironbut. :)

[ironbut]

Hey Ben, I've gotten a few tapes that have leader already attached and a couple do have the tape producers name printed on the leader. It's pretty unusual though. Most of the leader that I've found are different from the tape manufacturers. Lots of Scotch leader on Ampex tape.

Scott, I totally forgot about testing the pH on the paper leader. I'll write myself a note to pick up some test strips and distilled water and post the results on this thread this week,.. sorry!

[Scott D. Smith]

Hi Steve,

Thanks much. Would be interesting to know what you come up with...

Regarding printing on leader tapes: The only leader tape I ever saw with a manufacturer's imprint was from Audiotape, although I think some of the Sony and Maxell tapes from the seventies could of had them as well. I also have a few older reels of Telefunken and BASF tape-I'll look at them when I have a moment.