Remember LP records? Remember James Last and his orchestra? Look him up on Wikipedia just for fun - you may be surprised at how many albums he's sold, and his orchestra is still going strong in Europe.
Anyway, I dusted off the old wind-up Victrola the other day, and got it going again.... actually, that's not strictly true - it's a Technics direct-drive Quartz, and it works very well even after all these years. I'm going to treat it to a new pickup cartridge now that I've located a place still selling them here. And that new cartridge is going to cost much more than this turntable did originally, but if I want to preserve my record collection, I have to keep the needle in good shape. Another trick is to always wash off a record with a warm water spray after your remove it from its jacket, and before playing it. That way, you are always playing a clean record, and it lasts much longer. I have some that are 50 years old and still quite playable. But why am I telling you this? You can't buy a 12-inch LP these days anyway, unless you find it in a second-hand store, and those likely won't be in very good condition. So I'm trying to preserve my three or four hundred for a while yet. So far, so good.
"Another trick is to always wash off a record with a warm water spray after your remove it from its jacket, and before playing it"
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid, a friend tried to convince me that the best thing to do was to clean them with 3-in-one oil. Gulp, I never quite accepted that one..
When I was a kid, we really did have an old wind-up Victrola, which had been replaced by something newer, and was being kept out on the workbench in the garage.
ReplyDeleteThere weren't any new needles for it,
so I found some very small little finishing nails in dad's carpentry stuff, and discovered that one ofn those would fit the needle holder.
Would you believe I played an old 78 RPM record of "All I Do Is Dream Of You" by Jan Garber and his
orchestra on that old Victrola with a finishing nail for a needle?
I kept that old 78 RPM record until after I got my first record player of my own, and it had all three speeds, unlike now, so I could actually listen to that old record on it - if I didn't mind giving the needle a rough time. And it still played, too. I discarded it after the 78s and players designed for them disappeared, but it lasted for several decades, and I'll bet Jan Garber never expected his stuff to be around that long. That song was used a few years ago as a theme in commercials for our local phone company here.
Ray, I actually own a wind up Victrola that still works. The one problem is the needles. They don't sell them at Radio Shack anymore..
ReplyDelete:-(
I wonder if I could find some, now with the resources of the web..
Tommy...
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you do like Ray and go to the Hardware store...I'll bet they're a lot cheaper...hehe
@ Tommy -
ReplyDeleteSince I wrote this, I checked my record shelves, and found that old, old Jan Garber and his Orchestra recording of "All I Do Is Dream Of You" which dates back to about 1934,
I think. There's a picture of the label on my blog here now, and as you will see, the "Victor" is not yet
"RCA Victor" but is the original "Victor Talking Machine Company" - so it has to be old - maybe even back into the 'Roaring Twenties'.
I didn't see a date on it.
As I can recall, those original needles (Tungs-tone) came in a little tin box holding maybe a hundred, and they were about 5/8 of an inch long and made of hard steel. My substitute back then in the late 1930s was some 3/4 inch thin finishing nails almost the same size. As i remember, those needles were quite large at the blunt end where they went into the
needle-holder, so those little finishing nails fit almost as well,
but the points weren't the best -
those could be improved with a fine
file or emery paper, so they would play the record without gouging out slivers of the grooves as they went.
You might try a large darning needle, and cut it off near the point, so you'd have a good point and not too much length. That could get expensive if you changed needles as often as they did in the old days, but if you only use it rarely for demonstrating it still works, then one or two might be sufficient.
Another possible source might be a drafting equipment dealer - some models of tools for drawing circles have replaceable points for the needle-like end of the leg opposite the one where the pencil or drawing lead fits into it. so on those, you can replace both the lead and the point on the other leg. I have a Koh-i-Noor like that.
But the points are very sharp, so you might have to reshape it to make it better match the grooves of
a recording. Anyway, Good Luck!
Ray, first of all as we all know everything is relative. So, when you describe shaping the needle/nail, how would you know what's about right. I have a bunch of old 78s as well and I really don't want to destroy them in this process.
ReplyDeleteBut, as Ron said, nails are a lot less expensive.
Thanks.
Please don't take my "nails" suggestion too seriously - you could ruin otherwise playable records, unless you are extremely lucky.
ReplyDeleteIf I were you, I'd consult a good professional stereo shop, such as the one I went to yesterday here, where they also provide equipment for
radio stations and DJs and other professionals in the business. They should know if there's any source for needles suitable for playing 78-RPM records. Those would of course have to match the angles of the sides of the grooves,
and a nail or a darning needle isn't going to do that unless it is filed down or ground off at the right kind of angles, and I have no idea how you might determine that. So I suggest you talk to the professionals about this, so you don't trash your collection.
They might even have a way of adapting a modern stereo type needle to fit into your old Victrola needle-holder. It doesn't hurt to ask. Or someone may still be making the right kind of needles. Seems unlikely, but you never know.