[78-L] changing steel needle to sapphire

[Mike Mc Cormick]

Hello,

I'm thinking a little bit about bidding on a little1948 Garod 78rpm 
record player/AM radio on Ebay.
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Restored Garod Radio/Phonograph Americana 
<http://cgi.ebay.com/Restored-Garod-Radio-Phonograph-Americana_W0QQitemZ150349136649QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item230181c309&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C72%3A1205%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50>


The seller has modified the tonearm to use sapphire needles instead of  
steel.

My question is whether this type of modification was done fairly often 
by owners of such players back 1940s?

Or was such modifications extremely rare way back then?

Thanks, Mike