[78-L] Damage Control on Acoustic 78s?

[Dan Van Landingham]

Regarding poor audio quality on 78 recordings.I had a beautiful arrangement of Charles Gounod's "Ave Maria" with the famous "accompaniment by the Bach Prelude No.l in C Major(from the first book of the
Well Tempered Clavier).This was a Victor electric by the Victor Salon Orchestra as conducted by Rosario
Bourdon dating from circa 1926-29.This was a great favourite of mine and I would love to know if anyone
had ever heard of it.The copy I had was a circa 1938-41 Victor in the 30XXX  series(black label,bright 
gold ink which I referred to as "yellow gold" as opposed to the circa 1942 and later Victors which had a'
lighter gold colour think of white gold on your wedding band..This recording disappeared thanks to my 
sister in law who sold off much of my collection without my knowledge.When she told me about doing it,I 
was,to say the least,infuriated.It's an old story now but I would love to find another extant copy of it.The
record was cut on a 12 inch master.The reverse was an orchestral arrangement of Schubert's "Ave Maria"
again recorded by the same Victor group which I'm sure was a studio group.I dubbed it off in the early '90s
and it came from the collection of a now deceased dear friend of mine who gave me an album which had
contained it along with a dozen others in 1983.He passed away in the summer of 1987.My sister in law
sold much of my collection back in 2004 and when I returned to Oregon later that year,that album was 
gone.I don't know is it was ever reissued by Victor,or now,BMG-Sony.By the way,when GE bought
RCA in '85,why didn't EMI step in and claim the RCA Victor company as HMV  had merged with 
"British Columbia" in 1931 to form EMI.American Columbia was,from what I have recently read,taken
over by the Grigsby-Grunow Company which manufactured the MAJESTIC radio in the '30s.Any info
would be greatly appreciated by me as I would love to find another copy of that particular recording.



________________________________
From: "beststuff4u at frontiernet.net" <beststuff4u at frontiernet.net>
To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
Sent: Mon, March 8, 2010 6:29:05 PM
Subject: [78-L] Damage Control on Acoustic 78s?


They say ignorance is bliss, so that would make me extremely blissful.

All these years I played 78s without recognition that there were factors under my control that could either cause or avoid damage to my records. The worst I ever experienced was poor sounding music. Now that I am aware of the possibilities of certain damage factors, I need to understand how to detect them before any damage is done. I'm preparing to make some equipment changes as well as to start listening to my most treasured acoustics that I have not played in many years. Until now I've only been playing electric 78s.

The factors I am concerned about are:

1. Wrong stylus size.
2. Wrong stylus shape (i.e. conical, elliptical, truncated elliptical,etc.)
3. Improper tracking pressure.
4. Mismatch of cartridge to tonearm (tonearm weight and cartridge compliance).

Rather than learn thru trial and error and ruin my acoustics, I am hoping that the esteemed members of this list can answer some very elementary questions.

1. For the four concerns listed above, how do damage potentials present themselves? Visual? Audio? Other? 
2. I often read about "mistracking" as a potential to destroy a record in short order. How is mistracking recognized?

Thank you for any help in getting me out of my blissful (i.e. ignorant) state.
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