Mail Call: the Elusive Electron-ish Correspondent & Cassette High-Mortality Parts

The Cassette Ghost Box is full of tapes that are pushing well past 40 years old now, so I’ve been having to do a lot of cassette repair. Luckily, most of these era of tapes have screws holding them together instead of welds, so it’s not difficult. Most common point of failure? detached pressure pads. Always check them by visual inspection and then give ’em a light poke with a toothpick to see if the pad just pops off the metal flat spring it’s attached to. If it does, you need to disassemble the cassette and replace or repair that spring/pad part. You don’t want that little felt pad dropping into the innards of your recorder, and the tape won’t play without it.