[78-L] Getting needled

[Michael Biel]

All of the titan pressings I've seen are shellac, but you didn't mention
if this one is.  I am surprised that it didn't sound OK with your 78
stylus but you didn't tell us what your 78 stylus is.  I do not know
what might be different in size with a yellow shank needle, but a
chromium long playing needle is probably a harder chrome steel that will
play for a longer time (probably 15 minutes) than a regular needle (5
minutes) because 16-inch ETs run for 15 minutes.  Since your disc is a
library service disc it probably has separate selections rather than one
long program, so the longer time needle is not necessarily necessary. 
Is your disc 12 or 16-inches?  Royal is correct that most ETs use a 2.5
mil stylus, but the old standard that 78 stylus size is 3.0 mils is not
necessarily true.  2.5 truncated is what a lot of people find most
usable, and 2.7 is also a popular size, but so is 2.3.  If the groove is
a true V-shape, an LP needle will also work.  Most 78s had their metal
negatives polished which removes the bottom of the groove and makes it
U-shaped at best, but some ETs purposefully had their grooves left
V-shaped.  Lacquer cuts will be V-shaped because there never was a metal
negative to be polished.  

By the way, just because a disc has instructions to play with a certain
steel or fibre needle does not mean that modern lightweight styli can't
be used.  They were telling people of that era what to use with their
heavy pick-ups, and it is to be assumed that a 21at century collector
has more sense than to play a valuable record on ancient heavy arms and
steel needles.  Junkers, ok, but not a valuable or interesting record
like yours.

Mike biel  mbiel at mbiel.com     


-------- Original Message --------
From: Royal Pemberton <ampex354 at gmail.com>

> Slightly smaller than a 78 stylus....2.5 mil is approximately what
> they used with transcriptions. An LP stylus won't harm anything,
> it just won't sound very good.

On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 9:52 PM, Taylor Bowie <bowiebks at isomedia.com>
wrote:

>> I just got a 1934 33 1/3 transcription (inside out) on the "Titan Library
>> Service" label from San Francisco.
>
>> The label instructs me in no uncertain terms to "Use Chromium Yellow Shank
>> Long Playing Needles on this record."
>
>> I've looked all over the house, garage, glove box in the car, etc. and
>> I'm fresh out of those things...whatever the hell they are.
>
>> Would it be OK to use a modern LP stylus or will I ruin the olde diske? I
>> tried it with the 78 stylus and it sounded crappy although the music is
>> fantastic (one side is the legendary Williams-Walsh Hotel Mark Hopkins
>> Orch.).
>
>> Any of you techies able to advise me on this?
>
>> Many thanks from   Taylor