colterphoto1 Posted June 30, 2004 Share Posted June 30, 2004 Nice find! ENjoy thoroughly and DON"T GIVE THEM AWAY! Myself, I like cranking up Grandpa's old Edison model 100 (like a cabinet victrola) and playing some of those BIG THICK 78's from the 'olden' days. Let me know if ya want to sell any. PS- GREAT ART WORK on covers. Please consider just going through and photographing those for the heck of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fini Posted June 30, 2004 Author Share Posted June 30, 2004 Yes, the covers are great, huh? Good idea to photograph them (and maybe build a little stand for the one that's "now playing?" Sounds fun!). You all should have the opportunity to see (the now banned) C&S's walls adorned with lps as art. Mostly rare and not-so-rare jazz and latin, all with VERY cool covers. Quite inspirational, but my wife will not let me convert our living room into a "bachelor pad" shrine to the music gods. Well, at least I'm welcome any time to play in his home/lab/studio/theatre/farm/garden/shop/museum/shrine... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptnBob Posted July 1, 2004 Share Posted July 1, 2004 Playing the old 78s is an art form in itself. As was mentioned the early ones did not have a set speed and could be anywhere from the high 60s to low 90s (!) rpm. The old players had the stylus connected to a diaphragm which fed into a horn. So yes, the stylus was connected directly to the speaker - actually was part of the speaker. As for the styli - bamboo was popular, although cactus needles (you were wondering where the term came from, weren't you?) were used alot on this side of the Atlantic. My grandfather had a needle sharpener, which he used after each side, as the soft needle would get worn down quickly. Steel needles were also used, although you were supposed to discard them after a few plays - they would develop sharp edges that would lop off the grooves after a while. Our forefathers in the audio world had spirited debates over which sounded better, cactus or steel - since everything was pretty much single-ended - or straight acoustical - they had to argue about what they had. There was no fixed size or shape of the groove in the early days, so some manufactures would put abrasives in the lead in grooves to actually "sand" down the soft stylus to the proper shape. I'd stay away from the cheap "all in one" players. I don't get the feeling record care was very high on the designers' priority list. I've had pretty good success with Lenco turntables - they show up on ebay once in a while. The have infinitely variable speed from about 15 rpm to almost 100 rpm and are built like battleships. Unfortunatly, some of the arms are built like battleships too, but the later ones - from the early seventies - don't seem too bad. A mono system is a good idea if you want to invest that heavily in this. Even if you're playing the old 78s on a stereo, you'll want to switch to mono as a lot of noise - cutter rumble, for instance - is random phase and will get cancelled out. You will also need a preamp with a defeatable RIAA equalization curve - otherwise you'll wonder why everything was recorded on a moving subway train. The multitude of eq curves found on McIntosh C-20s, for instance, shouldn't be necessary - at least to start. Make sure the surfaces are clean - many of the early discs tend to attract a variety of strange plant and animal life. Have fun with this and keep us posted on how it's going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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