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Currently on ebay. Item 123261448498. Called "Special Gramophone Needles" and they look similar to the Siren steel needles.

Just curious.

How many records does each needle play ? I've asked the vendor without reply

soundgen wrote:How many records does each needle play ? I've asked the vendor without reply

The listing certainly isn't very clear about that, but I've just replenished my supply of regular steel from you, Mike!

I would be curious to hear about these though.

Sean

This is a reply he posted on YouTube:

“Dear Farbror Fittslem,
sorry for my delay to answer you.
It depends of the state of your record. Worn records will wear out the needles tip much faster than records in good shape.
In the average you can use my needles often 2 times. On my best records I can play up to ~4 times with my needle.
Sadly many people used steel needles more than once (a penny article...) , and so we have today quite many worn 78's records.
2 months ago”

Someone on the German Forum https://grammophon-platten.de/ has tested those a few months ago and posted about it. There was even a discussion with the vendor in that same thread. Results were mixed if I remember correctly. I tried to find it again, but was not able to, otherwise I would have posted a link.

Andreas

Yeah, I was just curious. I have enough of Mike's needles to keep me going a long time anyway.

$35 for 100 needles is a little expensive but I've been experimenting with PTFE (teflon) and couldn't resist ordering a set. I'll let you know how they perform.

donniej wrote:$35 for 100 needles is a little expensive but I've been experimenting with PTFE (teflon) and couldn't resist ordering a set. I'll let you know how they perform.

Perhaps they are Teflon ?

New message from: uhrmacheratelier-gereon-schloesser (24)
Hello!
Well - it depends of the state of the record.
Nearly factory new ones (rare - even I have only ~5 like this) can play up to 6 times.
On very worn ones or extremely loud recorded records the needles tip will last ~one play/side.
In the average you can play 2 sides.
best wishes,

I'm a little suspicious about those. Watching the u2b video I noticed a grey shadow growing in the record as the needle advanced throug it... Mmmmm... Reminds me of the greying that the bamboo needles leave on some plastic records of late forties.
Me particularly am fond of the self-made bamboo needles, and of mike's steel soft tone needles. I acquired a lot of 10,000 assorted steel needles from him many years ago, when he still use snail mail only... Still remain the loud tone and medium, but the soft tone are largely gone, only a few hundreds remain. I also later bought some hundreds of soft and medium from dear old Barry Williamson (who retired some years ago; anyone knows about him? He was a very helpful guy, and wrote long letters to me explaining how to grease springs and how to fit the four springs on motor no 34).
I've almost never used the medium and loud tone steel needles, they sound too harsh to me. The sound of the soft tone ones is the best for me.
Yet I'll have to order soon from Mike some thousands...!