Heads up on 1/4"NOS pancakes of 3M 996, 24 (ALL OF EM!) BUY IT NOW AROUND $300!

[orange]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3M-996-24-PANCAKES-FOR-REEL-TO-REEL-10-5-X-1-4-RECORDING-TAPE-/181873097273?

 

[orange]

Sold! Just after noon my time I gather, 60,000 feet of lovely rust on plastic and I assume there is one happy SOB waiting for Nirvana on pancakes...

 

[Des_Lab]

-Provided that the tape us usable. Which with 996 is a coin toss.

Either he will be extremely happy with a sweet score.

Or he will be extremely pissed-since he pissed $300 down the drain.

It WILL be one or the other.

 

[laatsch55]

No in between eh??

 

[Web Police]

Matt, do you have any of those tapes? If so what is the failure ratio in your stock?

 

[Des_Lab]

No in between eh??

Nope.

Matt, do you have any of those tapes? If so what is the failure ratio in your stock?

I have about a dozen of them on the gold reels. I also had a carton of 7" reels. All in all, I've attempted to use about six rolls, all from different batches. Of those, only two were usable. Rest-no bueno. Including the ones on the reels. I've dumped a few and will probably eventually dump the rest. A lot of people however seem to swear by it. I myself have, as indicated, used it with some success. So that is why I place the odds at 50/50, as opposed to, say, if they were # 227 or Ampex 456. If were either of those, I'd put the "no good" odds at about 75% for 227 99% for 456.

 

[Web Police]

So in other words buy em for the reels and chuck the tape?

 

[Des_Lab]

So in orther words buy em for the reels and chuck the tape?

Not necessarily. 996 is one of those tapes that's worth giving a spin because not all of it is bad. If you get a quantity of them, my advice would be to evaluate them on a roll by roll basis. Some may work. Others won't. Use the keepers and toss the rest. It's not like Ampex 456 that you can arbitrarily and indiscriminately toss and have it be a safe bet that disposal was a good call. 996-when you get the stable ones-is a very good tape.

 

[Web Police]

Thanks for the information good to know should I run across any 996 tapes.