The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

estott wrote:

De Soto Frank wrote: 2) Pathé` vertical-cut discs play from the center-out... by close examination of the record groove at the center of the disc (possibly with a loupe), you should be able to discern which way the grooves are "pitched"

American made Pathé vertical cut discs play outside in- few American records played from the inside out.

Arrrrgh. Now why would they go and do that ?





I have just two Pathé` verticals, and both are black-label, center-outs, and the labels are all in French, I think. I've never bothered much with them, as while I do have a Pathéphone, I haven't been inclined to pay $45 for a sapphire, just to play two discs.

estott wrote:

"American made Pathé vertical cut discs play outside in- few American records played from the inside out."

De Soto Frank wrote:

"Arrrrgh. Now why would they go and do that?"

Pathé did that to make their USA issues more palatable to USA buyers, who, unlike their French counterparts, had likely never encountered a center start phonograph record.

Do your French Pathé discs have paper labels? I had always assumed that when Pathé began using paper labels, their discs became outside-start worldwide, but I'd love to have my assumption challenged with facts.

"You should be able to confirm [whether a given Pathé disc is center start or outside start] by "playing" the disc on a later "hi-fi" type turntable, with a light-weight pick-up, and note which way the sound-head tracks: towards the center, or towards the edge."

This test might be more difficult than it sounds. Not only will you need a proper size stylus (and some transfer engineers have had good luck with a 2.1 mil truncated elliptical stylus, much smaller than the spherical stylus on original Pathé equipment) but you will need to do much work with the anti-skate settings to get the stylus to even track the Pathé disc.

estott wrote:

De Soto Frank wrote: 2) Pathé` vertical-cut discs play from the center-out... by close examination of the record groove at the center of the disc (possibly with a loupe), you should be able to discern which way the grooves are "pitched"

American made Pathé vertical cut discs play outside in- few American records played from the inside out.

Yup. And there's boatloads of the (American) outside start vertical Pathé discs around. By contrast, I've never seen an inside start Pathé disc (in America.) Which isn't to say there aren't any, but they must be rare.

victorIIvictor wrote:estott wrote:

"American made Pathé vertical cut discs play outside in- few American records played from the inside out."

De Soto Frank wrote:

Do your French Pathé discs have paper labels? I had always assumed that when Pathé began using paper labels, their discs became outside-start worldwide, but I'd love to have my assumption challenged with facts.

I have a number of vertical-cut French paper label Pathés and all of them play at 80 rpm starting from the rim. A few of them are late enough to be electrically recorded. All of my French etched label records are center-start, and most of them play at 90 rpm, although a few seem to sound fine (judging by the announcement) at 80 rpm.

Wolfe wrote:By contrast, I've never seen an inside start Pathé disc (in America.) Which isn't to say there aren't any, but they must be rare.

They're all at my house!

They do turn up on eBay occasionally but sell for higher prices than the American Pathés.

Pathé center start records have always been a source of intrigue for me. I recently posted on my YouTube channel one of my "etched" label 14 inch Pathé center start records playing on a Victor III from my collection using a Vicsonia reproducer:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl3i1weDZNQ[/youtube]

Doug