The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Same thing with cylinders. I have seen several 'restoration' attempts where someone had glued a steel needle (yes, sharp end towards the record) on a floating reproducer. Easy to imagine what that did to any wax cylinder.

I once bought an Edison Chippendale council and some records that came with it, all destroyed. The previous owner had cut off teh end of a steel needle and soldered it into the DD reproducer stylus bar. If the steel needle was not bad enough the weight was pushed right to the body of the reproducer because teh needle was still too long. Needless to say those records did not last long after this "repair".