Read/write and tunnel erase magnetic head assembly

A magnetic head or transducer assembly for cooperating with a relatively moving magnetic medium and for reading and/or writing a track of magnetic information on the medium and for erasing the edges of the track and old information adjacent to the edges of a newly written track. The head comprises a central magnetic core with a gap on an active face of the head assembly and with a read/write coil on the magnetic core and comprises a pair of additional, erase magnetic cores on opposite sides of the central magnetic core and forming a pair of erase gaps on the active face of the head assembly. A single erase coil is disposed on opposite legs of the erase cores, and an L-shaped side bar completes the erase magnetic circuit for both of the erase cores and lies on one end of the erase coil and provides an air gap between it and the ends of each of these erase core legs so as to cause the action of the two erase gaps to be equal in their erasing action.