Abstract: In the field of unwinding webs from an unwind stand in which a fresh web is prepared with a paste strip and is lapped spliced to a progressing expiring web, and the expiring web is then cut upstream of the splice to form a tail, the position of the tail is predicted or detected, and the movement thereof to a taping station causes a tape support roll, which supports a strip of one-sided adhesive tape to be applied to the tail in such a manner that part of the adhesive strip covers the tail and part of the strip engages the underlying web so that the tail becomes firmly taped down to the web thereby permitting the web to be run in either direction through processes such as converting processes, coating processes or the like. Embodiments of tape tail detectors are disclosed and embodiments of hold-down tape transfer mechanisms are disclosed.