[78-L] Early lacquer mastering

[Michael Biel]

On 3/30/2011 11:19 AM, Doug Pomeroy wrote:
> Mike Biel, who knows more about instantaneous recording discs than
> anyone else, says the earliest were made by Presto in late 1934.
>
> Doug Pomeroy
> audiofixer at verizon.net
>

Of course they had been working on developing them for a while and some 
lacquers have shown up as early as July 1934 -- Seth Winner has some.  
But the question was when record companies started to use them instead 
of wax or wax flow coats for plating for pressings.  So 1935 and 36 
would be likely since it would take a while for companies to experiment 
and modify their equipment.  I haven't had the time to start thumbing 
thru the Victor ledgers, for example, to see where the first notation of 
"Lacquer" in the "Wax" column takes place.  That column would have a 
number if a wax cake was used or "Flowed" if the used the flow-coat 
technique of melting a wax wedge onto a heated metal base which is what 
Western Electric developed for vertical transcriptions.  Film also shows 
up in a few cases.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
> ==============================================
>
>
>> From: "J. E. Knox"<rojoknox at metroeast.org>
>>
>> Greetings from FixitLand!
>>
>> Royal Pemberton wrote:
>>
>>> Didn't I read somewhere that ARC began cutting lacquers for masters
>>> around
>>> December 1936?
>> That date would fit in with the trumpeting of "Full Range Recording"
>> on the ARC labels. The records do start sounding better around that
>> date.
>>
>> Take care,
>>
>>
>>
>> Joe