[78-L] The Absolute Nadir of Quality Control

[Taylor Bowie]

Dime store labels used to pull all kinds of crap,  as all they cared about 
was moving a lot of cheap product.

One of the worst things I ever found was the Broadway dance band issue of 
"Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee"  (forget the name on the label)  which 
turned out to be dubbed from the Hit of the Week recording.

Imagine stealing a decent 15 cent record to make a crummy 20 cent record.

But my latest discovery is even worse.

Everybody knows that recording speed of 78s used to vary by some amount. 
Some records were recorded at 78,  80,  etc.

I bought a red wax Grey Gull of Arthur Fields singing Ain't She Sweet #2331. 
I put it on and it starts off with Sanella on clarinet playing like 
crazy....then the voice came on and I thought for a minute it was Cliff 
Edwards.

Then I realized that it was playing too fast...at 78rpm.

I'm not very techy about records but I have a dial on my turntable which is 
labeled pitch control and it can slow or speed up the turntable.  I made it 
go slower and slower until it sounded like Arthur...I  went all the way to - 
9.5%.

Am I correct that this means I actually ended up playing the thing at 
approx. 90% of 78rpm?

That would be barely 70rpm.

Can anyone think of a "78" more "off" than that?

Any info appreciated.

Thanks from

Taylor