8 Track Tape Repair Service | 8trackavenue.com

I am once again accepting repair jobs. As of November 11, 2025 any regular repair jobs sent to me would be up on the work bench in mid to late December or early January. I am only taking on regular, non-expedited repair jobs at this time. If you are shipping tapes from outside the US, please contact me first. Please keep in mind that I also make and sell repair supplies for multiple vintage audio tape formats. So my time is split between that and repair jobs. Thank you for your business and your patience.

PLEASE READ BEFORE SENDING YOUR TAPES TO ME

In order to help keep repair job times reasonable and to keep up with foam pad orders, I am asking that USA customers send no more than 40 tapes total per repair job at this time. This does not apply to customers outside of the USA. Some of these tapes are requiring a bit more service than usual due to their age to get them back up and running again. So this will help keep things to a more manageable level for me and a faster turn around time for you.

Also, if your tapes are in cardboard sleeves, please remove them from the sleeves before shipping them to me. This will help reduce the shipping weight, reduce the chance of the sleeve being damaged, and save me time.

I do a light cleaning of the outside of your carts as part of the service. But please keep in mind, my focus on this repair service is on getting the innards of your 8 tracks back in tip top, reliable condition. So please do not send heavily soiled carts to me (or carts that are in extremely bad physical condition). If they have a lot of grime on them, please at least clean the worst of the grime off before sending them to me (a damp Magic Eraser and a microfiber cloth work wonders). Example below:

8 Track Tape Repair Service

Get it done right the first time!!

Services Include:

*Sensing Foil replacement

*All Foam Pressure Pads are automatically replaced

*Felt Pads are replaced when possible with my anti-static

"smooth glide" pads.

*Cleaning of the pinch roller

*Replacement of out of round pinch rollers

*Light cleaning of the outside of the cart

*Clean and lube the spindles for the pinch roller and tape reel

*Tape tension adjustment

*Replacement of badly warped or noisy reels

*Repair of tapes with broken sense foil splice

*Repair of tapes that are jammed up and will not play

*Repair of tapes that have been eaten by the machine and have *some* tape spilled out of cartridge. Keep in mind that if the tape is accordioned or badly damaged, I can iron it flat. But there will be noticeable fidelity drop out when that part of the tape is played. I typically do not repair carts in which more than 4 feet of tape has come off the reel. Unless it is something rare. Contact me for details.

*Reorientating of tape that has flipped so that the graphite side it now contacting the playhead and the recorded side is not (a common issue)

In most cases a tune up will take care of most (but NOT all) wow and flutter issues many tapes suffer from. It WILL help to ensure your tape does not self destruct when played after having been shelved for several years (however accidents do happen!). A great many of the tapes sent to me for repair have damage done to them from an attempt being made at some point to play them after having sat for 20+ years. This damage could have been prevented. Most damage can be repaired, however the loss of sound quality in the damaged areas cannot be. A tune up will NOT fix tape drop nor will it bring back fidelity lost from tape damage (demagnetization, exposure to temperature extremes, damage done from the tape being eaten by the player). If a tape I am repairing has constant "drop out", really bad fidelity issues, has been recorded over, or has degraded to a point in which it sounds like someone is turning the volume up and down during playback, I do not charge for the repair. However, by now a lot of tapes do have some sort of damage or degradation to areas of tape due to age. So there will likely be an area or two of fidelity drop out during playback. This is common and these incur the regular repair fee.

*Please Note, I no longer do digital transfers. So if you have an 8 track tape that has precious memories on it that needs repaired, and would like it transferred to a digital format. I can do the repair for you. And then send it on to Mark at Audio Restorations for the transfer (we are not the same business so you would need to pay whatever his rate would be for the transfer to him separately).

Pricing:

Standard Service (up to 60 days between the time I receive your tapes and ship them back. Depends on the workload and tape condition. May take less time, may take a little more) I appreciate your trust in me to repair your tapes and your patience, as I am dealing with a tape format that is now between 40 and 50 years old in most cases. Time flies!

1-3 tapes: $5.00 per tape + $5.00 shipping (USA Only)*

4-9 tapes: $5.00 per tape + $7.00 shipping (USA Only)*

10+ tapes: $5.00 per tape = Free Media Mail return shipping (USA Only) *

*Ampex Carts and FlatPak Carts with melted pinch rollers are $7 per tape and are not eligible for Expedited service due to the amount of work they typically require to bring them back into service.

Expedited Service: I now take on a small number of Expedited service jobs. These are NOT rush jobs, so there is no difference in quality. Same repair service as listed above, just given priority. These will be ready to ship back out to you within 2 weeks of me receiving them. Limit of 30 tapes per customer for expedited service jobs. Please email me before sending Expedited Service jobs out to me. jon@8trackavenue.com

1-8 tapes: $6.00 per tape + Shipping.

9-30 tapes: $6.00 per tape. Free Media Mail return shipping (USA Only)

Shipping and payment information:

I accept Checks and Postal Money Orders (make sure they can be deposited via a mobile device). Make Checks and Money Orders payable to the name below please.

You can purchase the amount of repairs you need via my web store (US Customers only, Repair jobs from outside the U.S will need to be billed via Paypal Invoice):

https://www.8trackavenue.com/product-page/8-track-avenue-tape-repair-service

If you would like a different shipping service than what I offer in the web store, I can make up an invoice for you once the repairs are complete.

If you are a U.S customer and you are not paying for your repair job with a Check or Postal Money Order, and do not want to purchase your repairs from my online store. I can Paypal invoice you once the tapes arrive. But this invoice will need to be paid when I am ready to begin repairs.

Jon Costantino

P.O Box 516

Merlin, OR 97532

USA Customers, no more than 40 tapes total please. You can ALWAYS send more out once your job is complete :)

How I Handle Return Shipping (non expedited repairs)

USA Customers Only: 1 to 9 Tapes, Customer pays the shipping both ways. Media Mail is the cheapest and my default way of shipping your tapes back to you. I can ship them back to you Priority Mail/UPS/FedEx if you would prefer.

USA Customers Only: 10+ Tapes and I pay the return shipping via Media Mail. As stated above, I can ship them back to you via Priority Mail but you will incur most of the shipping cost ( will subtract the amount I would have paid shipping them back to you via Media Mail from the total).

I am happy to do repairs for my Canadian and European Customers. However you will have to pay for shipping to me here in the U.S and back to your country. And that can get expensive depending on the amount of tapes.

How To Pack Your Tapes

Please pack your tapes in a box large enough for them to sit FLAT. Put either bubble wrap, clean used paper bags, foam padding, newspaper or Kraft packing paper on the bottom and all sides of the box. Be sure and do the same on the top after the tapes have been packed. Put enough packing material on top of the tapes to fill any void between the top of the tapes and the top flaps of the box. Pack it like it is going to be thrown, dropped, etc because it most likely will be during shipping! Not responsible for tapes that get lost or broken during shipping due to improper packing!

And please make sure to tape the bottom of the box really good at the seam where the flaps meet. Do not rely on the cardboard tape Amazon and other shippers use.

Shipping in a proper sized box that will withstand a round trip journey with plenty of packing materials helps me keep costs down and will enable me to save time when packing your tapes back up for their journey home.

That was a long read :-) If you have any questions please

CONTACT ME