[78-L] Tops Record, is this an LP 78?

[Michael Biel]

I certainly didn't think this thread would turn into a "Can You Tops
This?" fest of trying to bring up examples of earlier narrow-groove
longer-playing 78s.  Of course the king is the Edison LP of 1926 with
the narrowest grooving of 450 threads that would play longer than modern
microgroove records but still spun at 80 RPM.  In the early 50s,
Audiophile Records took advantage of the potential higher frequency
response of microgrooves coupled with the higher surface speed of 78 and
produced a series of super high fidelity discs.  The Soviets began their
microgroove LP series with some of the records running at 33 but some
running at 78.  I have perhaps 25 of their early 8-inch 78 microgroove
records which can approach 10 minutes per side.  The numbers are
intermixed into a single numerical series, and catalogs and
discographies don't indicate the speeds of the individual records, only
the labels do.  Later on they added the speed to the prefix, 33D, but by
then they had stopped making the microgroove 78s anyway.  The irony is
that the shellac the Soviets used at that time for their standard groove
discs was quieter than the vinyl used on the LPs! 

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [78-L] Tops Record, is this an LP 78?
From: aaronlebedeff at free.fr
Date: Mon, November 10, 2008 7:08 am
To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>



 We must mention now the 7 inches Pathé vertical cut records from 
the late 1900's that have narrow grooves to be able to last as long as 
a 12 inches record !

 Peter

 "Steven C. Barr" <stevenc at interlinks.net> a écrit :

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <aaronlebedeff at free.fr>
>>    They began to record "microgroove" 78's earlier than these records
>> : I have a 10" 1930's Odeon made in Argentine, that plays during more
>> than 5 minutes at the regular speed.
>>    Michael Biel <mbiel at mbiel.com> a écrit :
>>> Mid-1950s in the microgroove era, so the grooving is narrower but still
>>> playable with a 78 stylus or an LP stylus. These were supermarket
>>> racked records, but also were sold by mail from radio informercials.
>>> The performers sometimes tried to sound like the original hit records
>>> (one company had a group labeled "The Sound Effects") but occasionally
>>> an unknown future star shows up on these. Generally valued only as
>>> packing filler to protect REAL records.
>>>
> Okeh...! AFAIK, the first use of "tighter groove pitch" to put more content
> on a 78rpm phonorecord was done by Grey Gull; however, this was ONLY
> on their vertical-cut (H-*) issues.
>
> The next example appeared on Hit-Of-The-Week "5-minute" records in
> the fall of 1930. The first such used extended-time recordings of a single
> tune (fortunately, these included Lang-Venuti interplay!)...but these were
> followed by "college "fight" songs,"and finally two current hits per disc!
>
> Shortly thereafter, Columbia introduced "extended-play" 78's. Some
> paired instrumental and vocal versions of tunes, while others featured
> two different songs. There were a couple of 12" "extended-play"
> records, one of which I own...it pairs a medley of Ted Lewis
> recordings with a specially-cut" imitation radio show" cut by
> Kate Smith!
>
> If anything appeared 1932-195?,I wot not thereof...?!
>
> ...stevenc
>
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