AN506 Tape head gallery
- The thing to focus in on when looking for head wear is the flattening of the head where the tape has been running over it. Flat spot of 3/16 inch wide calls for head lapping as any more than that will result in some loss fo transient impact for all instruments from kick drum to cymbals. There will also be some dulling above 10 kHz but because the dulling is so high in frequency it might not be readily heard. Also, ofen when the head wear flat spot reaches 3/16 inch wide the head wear may be noticeably uneven from top to bottom and that will usually result in tape sliding a bit up or down on the head. Tape guides will keep the tape from sliding too far up or down, but then the tape will be bouncing up and down as it slide, as it is corrected by tape guides, but then slides again, and so on.
- Generally speaking worn heads do not make the sound really dull, for instance, like high frequencies seriously rolled off with an equalizer. Heads that need cleaning due to build up of tape shed, will sound really dull until cleaned. One unexpected thing: In the rare circumstance that the head is so worn that it’s nearly worn out the high frequencies increase because the tape is then closer than ever to the magnetic pole pieces that pick up the magnetic variations on the tape. (heads have extra metal on the face which is expected to be worn away with use. With wear by use and then lapping to narrow the wear spot to be like new, the extra metal will eventually be worn away.)
- The thing to focus in on when looking for head wear is the flattening of the head where the tape has been running over it. Flat spot of 3/16 inch calls for head lapping as any more than that will result in some loss fo transient impact for all instruments from kick drum to cymbals. There will also be some dulling above 10 kHz and because the dulling is so high in frequency it might not be readily heard. Also, ofen when the head wear flat spot reaches 3/16 inch wide the head wear may be noticeably uneven from top to bottom and that will usually result in tape sliding a bit up or down on the head. Tape guides will keep the tape from sliding too far up or down, but then the tape will be bouncing up and down as it slide, then is corrected by tape guides, the slides again, and so on.
- Generally speaking worn heads do not make the sound really dull like high frequencies seriously rolled off. One unexpected thing: In the rare circumstance that the head is so worn that it’s nearly worn out the high frequencies increase because the tape is then closer than ever to the magnetic pole pieces that pick up the magnetic variations on the tape.
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