[78-L] RCA Victor reverse side "spider web" etching name?

[joe@salerno.com]

I've never thought it particularly attractive myself, what were they 
trying to say, that their reocrds were old and stored improperly? That 
the music was old? Or the owners of the records livewd in dingy old 
houses and never swept up after themselved? That the records or music 
belonged in a museum?

Why not a sun burst or something a little more positive?

joe salerno


David Lennick wrote:
> These "web back" pressings go back to the early 1920s or even earlier (though 
> not with "RCA" in those days) and into the fifties. RCA-pressed radio 
> transcriptions also had them. I've also seen some LPs with a similar backing, 
> on Angel sets that took an uneven number of sides. This was a bad idea because 
> LP sets were often played on changers and these sides didn't have a clean 
> groove running through them (unlike the 78s).
> 
> dl
> 
> Eric Jacobs wrote:
>> On the reverse side of some single-sided RCA Victor discs can 
>> be found an intricate etching displaying "RCA Victor" in large
>> 1.5-inch letters, together with the RCA logo and "His Masters 
>> Voice" logos in 1-inch circles with a background covering the 
>> entire disc side consisting of interconnected spider webs.
>>
>> It looks so cool.  Maybe it's commonplace, but I've not seen
>> too many discs with this pass through my studio.
>>
>> I'm happy to email a scan of this off-list to anyone who has 
>> never seen this reverse side etching.  Just email me privately.
>>
>> Anyway, is there a name for this intricate etching?
>>
>> How (types of recordings) and when (time span) was this etching 
>> used?
>>
>> I've only seen this reverse-side etching on my 1940s RCA Victor
>> 78 RPM test records (EQ test tones - anyone else collect these?) 
>> and now with these RCA Victor test pressings.
>>
>> For shellacs, they're very quiet.
>>
>> Thanks so much,
>>
>> Eric Jacobs
>>
>> The Audio Archive, Inc.
>> tel: 408.221.2128
>> fax: 408.549.9867
>> mailto:EricJ at TheAudioArchive.com
>> http://www.TheAudioArchive.com
>>
>>
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> 
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