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where the concept of attempting to record on
Gold Moulded wax originates.
However, if you read that whole story, and really take everything in to account, you will see the complaints about mysteriously dull cutters after the Gold Moulded cuts.
I could go in to a list of ingredients that
Edison and his men added to the basic brown
wax that transforms it in to Gold Moulded wax.
First of all they wanted it black because at
this time black was the "in" color for records.
Edison wanted to compete directly with the
black shellac disc market. While he was at it, he also concocted a list of stuff to put
in there that makes this wax stand up much better to repeated playings. This was also
right at the exact time that he introduced the
trunkated sphere shape for the new 2-minute
stylus which was used on the model C reproducer.
This new "doorknob" stylus has a bit less contact area with the record groove and so a
harder compound was needed for making the
records. The idea of the "doorknob" stylus
is to reduce its dimension that goes along in
line with the groove. This dimension, being somewhat less than the old spherical "ball" stylus has, can allow this new stylus to track higher frequency undulations. Where as the
ball might sort of ride over the tops of the
high frequency waves, the new doorknob can
actually reach down in there and track them
more precisely. (at least that is the theory,
in actual practice, sometimes a ball stylus
still sounds better, more robust, to my ear
anyway...)
So, there it is, the story of Gold Moulded wax
as I have come to understand it.
Sure, yeah, we have some loose cannons on deck
out there who claim all sorts of things.
But hey, if you want your sapphire shaver
cutter to stay sharp, and you want your
recorder cutters to do the same thing, it's
up to you man. All I can say is that certain
compounds are designed to be recorded upon
and shaved, while there are others that were
meant only for Moulding, and Playing, and they
will dull up a cutter in short order.
The idea was to make the compound smooth and
shiny so that when the playback stylus is
dragged across it, there is very minimal
wear to the rounded polished profile of that
stylus. But attempting to cut this stuff is
an entirely different story! At the extreme
outlandish end of the spectrum as far as
weird ideas, ask yourself this: "Would it
be a good idea to try cutting black shellac
of a 78 rpm disc with my recorder cutter?"
...I am just saying...
Contact me off list for info on cupped-point
Edison 2-minute recorder cutters.
Chuck
