Phono mistakes we’ve all made when we started out.

[Lucius1958]

Played a vinyl 78 on a Victrola.
Accidentally turned mainsprings loose by removing the governor when the machine was still partially wound up.

Put wax cylinders on a cold machine.

Also re-sharpened steel needles...

-Bill

[tomb]

When I first started I was shoving wax cylinders on the mandrel with a heavy hand. Broke three before I learned my lesson. I thought I could glue them back together too but that did not work either. Tom

[Schlick]

Towards the end of my dad's life I thought I'd lift his bed-ridden spirits and play a few cylinders for him on his Idelia in the next room. I picked some of his favorites and started playing them. But they all kept skipping and skipping. Huh! His best records must all be scratched...

After dad passed, Randy Donley showed me how to switch it between 2 minute and 4 minute.

To all you living collectors: Sorry!

-Michael

[AZ*]

When I got my first wind-up, I was told to turn the needle a quarter turn after each record "to save needles, as they're hard to come by." I thought I was hot stuff for my ability to rotate needles 90 degrees so quickly between records, and demonstrating for others "the way to do it".

Yup. Actually it my dad who told me to turn the needle a quarter turn between records since that's how they did it when he was a kid. Dads know best, right?