[78-L] changing steel needle to sapphire

[Royal Pemberton]

There were some styli made in the 1940s and 1950s with a sapphire tip,
for 78 play, which were designed to fit the kind of cartridge such as
would normally be found in an arm like that one (which is a Shure
Glider, and the cartridge is held in the arm by two small screws on a
1/2" mounting centre; the thumbscrew for holding the needle in the
cartridge comes through the opening in the front of the arm)--no
modification required.

(When I was little I saw the custom-made add-on phono attachment that
permitted playing 78s through a Philco console radio my grandparents
had bought in the late 1930s.  Its tonearm was the identical item, and
I remember Dad telling me it 'used the same kind of needles that the
wind-up record players did, and you had to change them after every or
every other record.'.

Unless that statement meant a more modern cartridge was mounted in the arm?

On 6/5/09, Mike Mc Cormick <tooelemountains at comcast.net> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I'm thinking a little bit about bidding on a little1948 Garod 78rpm
> record player/AM radio on Ebay.
> <javascript:;>
> 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
>
>
>
>
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