[78-L] Did The English Take Better Care Of Their Records?

[Kristjan Saag]

Robert m. Bratcher Jr wrote:

>  >  Often I've found a near mint to very good condition 78 rpm of a record where the
>  >  45' is often in poorer shape but still playable until a better one
>  >  comes along. At least thats how I've found many 50's era US issues to
>  >  be. The English 45's might be in better shape but I honestly don't
>  >  know if they are or not as I really don't look for English 45 rpm
>  >  issues of American records although I do own a few from the 60's&  70's.

Steven C Barr wrote:


>  ..45's were primarily owned by teen-agers...who took them to friends'
>  houses as well as "record hops"...but who DIDN'T take a lot of care of
>  them, especially the songs on them were no longer "hits!" As well, the
>  needles on 45 players were rarely changed; most of the players came
>  with "permanent" (in theory only...!) needles, and there were never
>  changed until they were so worn that the sound was noticeably
>  affected?!

---
There's a huge difference, as for condition, between a typical second hand European 45 (EP or single) from the 1950,'s/ early 1960's and later issues. The main reason why later vintages are in better condition is that they've been played on better equipment. The stereo systems, with separate light weight turntables, were introduced in the 1950's but didn't catch on among the large public, until the mid 1960's. That's why BOTH the teenage pop single AND the classical EP from, say, 1958, usually is in a dreadful state, whereas the equivalents from 1966 are much better.
The European record players (both the portables and the large "radio gramophones") in the 50's often had an adjustable cartridge with a microgroove stylus (marked red) on one side and a coarse groove stylus (marked green) on the other. As you may guess many microgroove discs were played with the wrong stylus, just because one forgot to tilt the cartridge...
As Mike has noted the EP format was used much longer in Britain than in the USA and often had unique material, not issued on single or LP. But the Shangri-La for EP freaks in the 1960's was France. Not only for local material; a lot of the "collectable" French EP's from those years feature international artists.
In Scandinavia, as in Britain, the hay days for the micro groove EP were the 1960's, with production folding in the 1970's. Issues from the 1980s are mostly on small labels, often featuring punk music.
And, as with all other formats, the micro groove 45 rpm EP is still around, if you care to look for it. Here's one example:
http://www.juno.co.uk/products/Hey-Young/367597-01/
Kristjan