[78-L] Approximating 78s age by physical characteristics

[David London]

Now that you mention it, yes I do have some modern Columbias that aren't 
laminated.  Those must be after the EMI merger you mention.

You mention vinyl 78s.  Yes, I have a couple of late Pye/Nixa 78s on 
vinyl that are indeed supremely quiet.  Wish I had more.

Lastly, you mention lamination returning in the early 40s to Columbia, 
and that gels with my thinking that what I call the "modern" laminated 
78, starts about the time of WW2.  The date we established earlier for 
lead-in grooves (1933) seems to confirm this, as all these modern 78s 
have lead-in grooves, but I have some Regal-Zonophone laminated 78s, 
that look modern in most respects, except they have no lead-in groove, 
and these have labels that I identified as being in used in the 1930s.  
This places them, mid 1930s when lead-in grooves a lamination must have 
just started to go mainstream.


On 04/03/13 10:14, David Lennick wrote:
> English Columbias were laminated until the EMI merger, as were Parlophones.
> (This is oversimplification since it doesn't tell when these labels began to be
> laminated.) French pressings of just about everything were laminated into the
> 50s, ditto Australian from a certain point.
>
> Capitol 78s were notoriously breakable in the 40s and got worse in the 50s, but
> they used vinyl for promotional pressings and usually didn't indicate this
> anywhere. Find a black vinyl Capitol and you've got one of the quietest records
> ever made. Unfortunately some of their promos were on thicker heavier
> "Superflex", designed for children's records, and these are noisier.
>
> There's a lot more to it..Brunswicks and their bargain derivatives like
> Vocalion usually weren't laminated, but exceptions turn up. When CBS bought
> ARC, lamination stopped for a couple of years and the early red Columbias and
> OKehs are quite breakable, till lamination returned in the early 40s. A lot of
> their client pressings, like Liberty Music Shops and Schirmer, turn up on noisy
> unlaminated shellac and quiet laminated material, sometimes within the same
> album. And at some point in the mid 50s, red Columbias became solid shellac again.
>
> Again, over-simplification.
>
> dl
>
> On 3/3/2013 6:59 PM, David London wrote:
>>>>> first laminated pressings
>>> Columbia and American were doing laminated pressings in maybe 1902 or 3.
>>>     The Columbia Marconi Velvet-Tone flexible plastic discs in 1907 were
>>> laminated. But Columbia was doing solid pressings as well until the
>>> introduction of the New Process in 1923.
>>>
>>>
>> I noticed you capitalised "New Process".  Was this the start of the
>> modern laminated pressings?
>>
>> Amongst all the modern (post WW2?) 78s I have, labels like Columbia,
>> HMV, Parlophone, Philips are thicker and nicely laminated, but some
>> still seem to be thin unlaminated - such as red Capitol label - the
>> later Capitol went to purple and were laminated. (a side note - the red
>> label Capitols all seem to have more surface noise as well) There's
>> probably a whole long story here, and it may well be country/continent
>> specific.
>>
>> Is it possible to put an approximate date on when the "modern" laminated
>> disc was first used mainstream?  Seems that nearly all later big band
>> era and jazz records I have are laminated, except a few, such as red
>> Columbia label from the US.  The impression I am forming is that the
>> main changeover to laminated was happening about or just before WW2.
>> The earliest I have noticed are perhaps some Regal-Zonophones from the 30's.
>>
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