[78-L] Glass versus Vinyl

[David Lennick]

Two things are being intermixed here..glass replaced aluminum when it became 
unavailable during the war. Vinyl was used for pressings, and rarely for discs 
sold to consumers until it was economically feasible to use it and pickups were 
lighter by the mid 40s. I've seen vinyl soft cuts from the fifties and I think 
that's what's used today for "dub plates" but can anyone comment on the quality 
of the 50s vinyl soft cuts? Noise level? Frequency range? Durability?

dl

On 1/6/2011 10:29 AM, marimbamoods at comcast.net wrote:
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> just wondering - why were lacquer-coated glass-based transcription discs used well after the introduction of vinyl?
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> i recently encountered a damaged glass-based disc from 1945, though vinyl discs were in use as early as ten or more years prior to that. given the fragility of the glass type, why were those manufactured at a time when vinyl was readily available?
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> are the lacquer-coated surfaces somehow superior to the vinyl surfaces for fidelity or noise levels? that does not seem likely given the smoothness of vinyl, which continued in use for a half-century after its' introduction.
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> so, why deal with the delicate handling issues of glass-based discs when hassle-free vinyl was already in use?
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> best, david harvey