My tape player chewed up a rare Nirvana bootleg at a swap meet last summer

I was at the Austin Record Convention in June and my old Walkman just grabbed the tape mid-play, mangled about 10 seconds of Side B. I managed to carefully splice it back with some Scotch tape but it sounds wobbly there now. Has anyone here had luck fixing a chewed tape without losing the audio quality?

2 comments

2 Comments

butler.brian2d agoTop Commenter

Nah, I've tried the Scotch tape fix a few times and it always makes the sound warbly no matter how careful you are. Better off just finding a digital copy online and accepting the tape as a cool display piece.

the_piper2d ago

Ugh, I totally get the frustration but I have to disagree here. A properly done tape splice with a good splicing block and a sharp razor blade won't cause any warble at all. The problem with Scotch tape is it's too thick and the adhesive gets gummy. You gotta use actual splicing tape, it's super thin and doesn't mess with the playback. I've fixed dozens of tapes this way and they sound perfectly fine afterwards. Just takes a little practice is all.