What types of unusual records have you heard of/have?

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Lucas
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What types of unusual records have you heard of/have?

Post by Lucas »

What types of unusual records have you heard of or own? I'm mostly talking about 78 rpm era records. I have the following.

Aluminum record
Victor pre-grooved blank
Unusual labels (patent violators, pirate labels, etc)
Vertical cut record
Acetate (not that unusual)
Marconi velvet tone record
RCA Victor Program transcription

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Re: What types of unusual records have you heard of/have?

Post by VanEpsFan1914 »

I have some acetates somewhere, if I didn't sell them.

Have a couple vertical cuts.

The wildest records I have are some Empire Talking Machine universal-cut records that supposedly could sound equally awful on a Victrola as on a Pathéphone. The same masters were used for Operaphone records.

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Re: What types of unusual records have you heard of/have?

Post by gramophone-georg »

I have probably around 100 Program Transcriptions. Some are "Victrolac" pressings. I have around 150 "picture label" German Parlophon 12" records to go with my big Parlophon machine. I also have some Victor "Pict-Ur-Music" records that have the same selection both sides, as well as a small collection of "splatter" records and 1930-32 Victor picture discs. I also have a soft spot for Gennett Electrobeams, Pathé splatters, and Columbia Royal Blue records, of which I likely have around 1000 between the popular series and classical album releases.
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Re: What types of unusual records have you heard of/have?

Post by Inigo »

I have some acetates, aluminum based, probably from the mid to late forties, Spanish, Portuguese and South American.
I have a 5" Victor home recording record in a plastic material, which I cannot date. It has a speech by a Spanish impresario, as the label states, but I cannot get sound from it. Probably I need a very wide stylus.
I have three rarest records, I suppose in Italy they are common... These are flexible celluloid - like records branded Flectar Non Frangar, on vivid orange, and green color, with red paper labels (pressed) that seem to be from the mid twenties. They are 10" operatics, from beautiful puccini arias sung by tenors Voltolini and Bergamaschi. These records are made by La Fonografia Nazionale, Milano.
Another collection is my album of rarities, where I've been joining records from all parts of exotic lands... Serbian, Hawaiian (the very first I had, early in my hobby, which is Kanui&Lula singing Oua Oua and Tomi Tomi :D the voice of the singer is peculiarly funny for me, as it sounds as of a man in his fifties or sixties, and songs with a strong raspy voice, that transmits fun and joy) , Japanese, nigerian, Turkish, hindi... A little bunch of exotic records.
I also happened to find a bunch of old Spanish & French G&Ts, 7" sized, recorded in 1902 and the like, in a very old cardboard box, which seems original from the era. These were among the first 400 recorded by Carl Scheuplein in France and in Spain, when he was assigned as chief recorder for the Cie Française du Gramophone.
And of course, the rare crying record from German Beka, in a Spanish Parlophon pressing, paired with the laughing record, also the Beka recording.

Edit. MORE "SPECIAL" chords in my collection...

I also have a box full of Pathé records, mostly Spanish and French issues, operatics and flamenco.
An album of Fonotipia records, mostly operatics.
One blue Indian label Okeh with Old Black Joe.
I also have a Phonycord, several Duriums and HOWs, several Goodsons, and the famous Canadian farting contest records! Several other laughing records, a couple American party records, two albums of fairy tales on records (White Snow, Sleeping beauty and two dozen more stories for children), an album of patriotic songs and marches from the Spanish Civil War (Franco wing), several Standards and Uniteds (Henry Burr and the like)...
But about the rarest records for a Spanish collector, the hmv issue of Ellington Live and live tonight, and Emilio Cáceres Marihuana, still escapes me in 43 years collecting... GRAMÓFONO AE4414, still not a single copy I've ever seen! Another rare (in Spain at least) is Gramófono DB1126, Backhaus laying Schubert Moment Musical in F minor and Impromptu B flat... the only copy I've ever seen I bought it, despite being a british pressing, and having the typical stressed grooves in the low strong piano notes. I say typical because I own a tape copy from my grandpa Spanish Gramófono pressing and it has the same stressed grooves in the same places.
I own three of the Spanish Parlophon recordings by Sam Wooding and his Chocolate Kiddies... rare also. Never have seen another one.
Ah, and an early Carlos Gardel acoustic from 1919, pobre of his very earliest recordings, from Argentine.
I must have more rarities, as my tastes are eclectic and I've collected at least an example of whatever I've seen on 78s in these 43 years!
Another rarity, despite being an enormously popular record in the mid forties, is a Spanish Columbia of the vocal sextet Los Xey singing Buen Menu. They recorded it also for Gramófono, but I've never seen a copy of this. And the Columbia I own is the sole copy I've ever seen. The lyrics of this song are the menu of a restaurant, recited to a hungry client. Three minutes of a list of dishes for every taste! A beautiful Spanish barbershop style singing.
Last edited by Inigo on Mon May 10, 2021 1:34 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Curt A
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Re: What types of unusual records have you heard of/have?

Post by Curt A »

I have forty or fifty different "puzzle records", an early 1930s Victor 10" 33rpm record, a Pathé cement record from 1906 which has a picture side and a French picture disc with can-can dancers from the Moulin Rouge.
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Re: What types of unusual records have you heard of/have?

Post by smitharthur »

I have a couple of records made by individuals at recording studios in the late 30's, families recording songs. One has handwritten dates and content on it. One was recorded in Fitchburg MA, the other in Worcester MA.

I would say the most unusual Victor 78 I own is one of the notorious minstrel records, from 1910. With some of the most awful language imaginable.

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Re: What types of unusual records have you heard of/have?

Post by AmberolaAndy »

I have 2 of the early Victor LP discs of the early 1930s but nobody too exciting on them.

I have some 8-inch victors of 1906-1907

A Marconi Velvet tone

Of course the client discs of Columbia and their various spindle holes

Steel needle type vertical cut discs as opposed to Pathé’s sapphire discs

A promotional disc for the 1934 film Gift of Gab

These 78s were much later, but I have some of these train sound effects discs.

Little Wonder discs with truncated versions of songs on a 5 inch disc. (I broke one of mine back in January ☹️)

A couple of those “party records” but those are also from the late 78 RPM era

Of course the many Acetate home recordings I have but those are also from the 1940s and 50s

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Re: What types of unusual records have you heard of/have?

Post by Orchorsol »

Curt A wrote: Mon May 10, 2021 9:56 am I have forty or fifty different "puzzle records", an early 1930s Victor 10" 33rpm record, a Pathé cement record from 1906 which has a picture side and a French picture disc with can-can dancers from the Moulin Rouge.
Ditto to the puzzle records, I have quite a few English ones - the most unusual being one on a 5 ⅞ inch kiddies' record, and one with no fewer than 24 grooves per side.

Flexibles - we have quite a few English labels, some being various kinds of celluloid (Filmophone, Phonycord, Goodson - many of the latter being from Grey Gull masters), some single-sided pressed on card backs (Durium, some being small advertising records, and Tuck postcards) and some laminated card picture discs (Trusound, early 1930s).

Stollwerck chocolate records!

I'm sure I'm forgetting various others...
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Re: What types of unusual records have you heard of/have?

Post by Phono48 »

I have this 12" shellac disc. Unusual (to me, anyway) because of the 33rpm speed and the centre start. Any information very welcome!

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Re: What types of unusual records have you heard of/have?

Post by smitharthur »

Oh I forgot, I also have two Vogue picture discs. I never saw the big deal with them, and I actually think the art work is ugly on them. But I know collectors gobble them up.

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