I do a ton of Reel to Reel, and we're required to clean the heads on our TEAC A-2500 Reel-to-Reel Player pretty often, as the tapes we get are generally very old and near the end of their life. Follow along as we use Isopropyl Alcohol and Cotton Swabs to get the grime off the delicate Magnetic heads. In our first two pictures, you can see the grime from a tape on all 3 heads, and the lead-in rollers.

The hero's of the hour: Isopropyl Alcohol and Cotton-Swab Tipped Sticks (commonly called Q-Tips)

You might want to coat the grime with alcohol and let it soak, as I find it comes off easier with some time to let the alcohol soften the adhesives. Work the corners and edges, and follow the entire path of the tape and clean each metal part the tape touches.

And what we have left over is some pretty nasty cotton swabs contaminated with dirt and grime.

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