Vince, you sent me that video and I saw what he is doing with that head but I didn't observed details. OMG that head is really flat and, tell me if I'm wrong, it is amorphous head. Why, oh why?! I'm gonna a finish my dinner, tell goodbye to Mr.Gordon and jump thru the window right after.
that said, whatever it is, now it's gone, lapped in a wrong way.
it's like when the doctor wants to salvage a guy but then he applies his surgery with a chainsaw.
Edit: yes, it's definitely amorphous! (14 laminas per channel at REC head and 15 laminas per channel at PB head, which is well within the amorphous range of laminas number).
Hey, look at around 3:30in the above video and do notice those LONG grey traces on his lapping film, made by scrubbing the heads in a flat way there on the lapping film, something he could do just because he bent the head guides.
Not a mystery he went and flattened the gaps area by removing most of the material just at the gaps! (which you should avoid as much as possible)
This puts in evidence he might totally ignore how a magnetic head actually works and why, in fact he totally killed that head.
Edit n2: also, give a look at that video at 6:26 to 6:28 where the light reflex helps clearly seeing a totally flattened zone just there in the gaps area of the PB head! Well, that's exactly what you should NEVER achieve while lapping.
Lapping means removing material from the zones outside the wear groove, to make the whole head surface even, and to also try to keep the curved shape of the head... while doing that, you should need to try to remove the least metal at all from the gaps which just need to be polished.
And since geometry, just like maths, isn't an opinion... if you manage to get a flattened area just there at/around the gaps on a previously curved surface where the gaps are at the "peak" of that curved surface, it simply means you removed most of the material just from the gaps and not from anywhere else but the gaps. Or, if you were lucky, you removed metal mostly from the sides of the wear groove but also considerably more than needed from the gaps (shortening the head's residue life) and, anyways, you didn't try (AT ALL) to keep the curved shape of the surface which is important to keep a correct tape/head contact and the correct so-called "wrap"... Also those sharp edges there at the center zone of the head would not be too gentle to the tapes.
I hope this point would be clear for anybody who would try to lap heads... this is a so delicate kind of work where the difference of salvageing or destroying a head is all about the way you perform it... and if in doubt about what to do exactly, it's much better to avoid to try lapping.
Edit n3: here at this post below, you can see an example of a properly lapped head, while keeping its own original curved shape as much as possible.
This head, after being lapped, shows a perfectly "as new" playback response which is exactly the same on both channels and well extended up to 21Khz (quite remarkable for a REC/PB head for a 2 heads deck!).
https://forums.phxaudiotape.com/threads/telefunken-tc-750-a-new-challenge.9849/#post-280152
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