[78-L] Getting needled

[Michael Biel]

From: David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca>


> Any chance that it's a vertical cut? It would probably say so on the label
> and if you've played a vertical with a 78 stylus in mono you've noticed
> that you aren't hearing anything but groove noise.
 
I was thinking that too, bit all of the Titan discs I have seen were
lateral.  But this is a music library disc so it might indeed be
different.   

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com

> In stereo you'd get music, out of 
phase. A .7 stylus is actually the best for playing vertical cut
transcriptions 
(and a phase reversal switch, of course). World and Associated/Muzak
were 
vertical cut.

dl

Michael Biel wrote:
> 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
> 
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