WHSmith Cleaning and Demagnetising Tape

Not content with offering a mere head cleaning tape, WHSmith sold a combined Cleaning and Demagnetising Cassette, as shown here in a Tascam Porta 05 multitracker. Contrary to some designs of head demagnetiser cassette, this one, from the 1990s, contained no circuitry. Inside it’s just a standard set of spools, plus a cylindrical magnet, around which the cleaning tape is wrapped, so that the magnet revolves in the opposite direction to the exposed tape when the cassette is run. The magnet, incidentally, is behind the red and white spoked wheel graphic. It’s not particularly strong.

1985 Sony HF 60 Audio Cassette

The first  Sony HF cassettes of the 1980s took up a position which I felt would have sat somewhere between the former CHF and BHF in the range. This is how they looked. This is a 1985 HF 60, carefully looked after and in very nice condition in its 27th year.

1985 Rich Bitch Studios Audio Cassette Case

This is going to be pretty localised in its interest, but it may perhaps conjure memories of similar practices used by various commercial recording studios in the 1980s.