[78-L] When is a microgroove not a microgroove?

[David Lennick]

On 5/8/2012 12:15 AM, David Breneman wrote:
>
>
>   From: David Lennick<dlennick at sympatico.ca>
>
>> I have 4 7-inch 78s pressed (uncredited) by Decca, given as premiums by the
>> Quaker Oats Company or something like that..the theme and 3 stories in the
>> Sergeant Preston of the Yukon series, issued in 1952. You would think they were
>> microgroove, but a .7 stylus gives a very hissy output..I thought this was poor
>> pressing material, but I tried a 2.0 mil truncated elliptical stylus and the
>> sound was perfect. Discs are near mint, so this doesn't seem to be a matter of
>> the discs having been chiseled out. How come this, how come?
>
>
> Weren't the 7" 78s from the 50s and 60s, such as children's records, also
> cut with 3 mil grooves?  As a kid, I was taught to always use the 78
> stylus on a slip-over cartridge for any 78, no matter what the age.
>
> _______________________________________________
Seeing as these discs run as long as 4'31", I'd say they definitely aren't 
standard groove, but the labels don't give any indication. Bell 7" discs from a 
bit later usually say to use an lp needle and sound great if they haven't been 
destroyed by the average 78 chisel (or "universal" point). I didn't try a 1-mil 
stylus since the 2.0 truncated sounded so good.

Dance and folk records (10" and 12") continued to be cut standard groove, as 
did Chappell and other music library recordings which remained in production 
through 1968.

dl