The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Inigo wrote: Tue Sep 28, 2021 2:23 pm What a collection! Marvelous! How many 78s do you have? Do you have a database and catalogue? I have only 5500, excel database and catalog, and I'm almost lost! You seem to have 50,000 x 78s!!

Thanks, Iñigo! Frankly I don't know how many 78s I have, and I don't have them catalogued. My (somewhat less-than-perfect) system is geographic: I keep artists and genres grouped physically together, which allows me to flip though records in the same shelf until I find the one I look for (or give up in despair). It works more or less okay for the more famous artists, like the Jelly Roll Morton row, but when it gets to more generic genres like dance bands, with hundreds of obscure names, many of which I never heard of, it becomes a lottery. It is not that bad, as I end up finding stuff that I had forgotten that I had.

CarlosV wrote: Tue Sep 28, 2021 1:10 pm

kirtley2012 wrote: Tue Sep 28, 2021 11:43 am Wow, what a collection!, that record library is the stuff of dreams!

... sometimes the stuff of nightmares, when I cannot find the record I am looking for.

I doubt I have as many as you Carlos, but I can TOTALLY relate to that! Even though mine are catalogued!

CarlosV wrote: Tue Sep 28, 2021 3:42 pmI was impressed with the editing abilities of the guy who filmed the collection. He spent about three hours filming and asking questions, to condense it all in three minutes. He did not take notes neither, so small flaws like misnaming the Edison Army & Navy are minor, considering that before interviewing me he had never heard of gramophones!

Yes, I was going to comment on the editing skills. Many years ago I was filmed for a 2 minute feature on the BBC "Antiques Inspectors" series. As well as a presenter, camera and lighting operators, there were two continuity guys who sketched everything all the time - and made sure our hands were in the same position on a record throughout different shots, and that sort of thing. Bizarre!

The producers at RTL did an excellent job editing the story. Your collection is amazing. SO many records!

Excellent short video Carlos and it is so good to be able to put a face to you after all these years ! Your collection is pretty mind-boggling and your memory must be prodigious---I would be lost in minutes ! Is that an Expert Senior and EMG Xa we see pictured ?

Thank you so much for posting---very interesting indeed.

emgcr wrote: Wed Sep 29, 2021 2:30 am Excellent short video Carlos and it is so good to be able to put a face to you after all these years ! Your collection is pretty mind-boggling and your memory must be prodigious---I would be lost in minutes ! Is that an Expert Senior and EMG Xa we see pictured ?

Thank you so much for posting---very interesting indeed.

Thanks, Graham! The Expert is a very nice Junior with its original stand, I bought it from Alastair, our Country Chemist and horn artist, years ago. The EMG is a Xa. As to my memory, it is not that good, so I assume that finding the more obscure records will be like needles in the haystack, but the ones closer to my heart I can find in some (dozens of) minutes.

Your wonderful collection deserved longer than three minutes air time to do it justice, but I can relate to the time it took to film it.
When my wife and I took part in an episode of "The Repair Shop" for the BBC we made two separate visits to the location, each of which lasted two or three hours. When the programme was aired we appeared for about 15 minutes.

Very interesting to have comments on the nuts and bolts as to the "behind the scene" activities of programmes and just how much time is expended to show such brief extracts ! Thank you Roger and I love your bureau !

Carlos, thanks for your answer.
About the rtl video, very professional and good indeed. Those guys work marvels.
About the uncatalogued collection (enormous) I would tell you... ... to hire me until retirement age (10 years ahead) and I'll make a good excel file of it, and a catalogue, allowing you to locate any record in a shot. Excel is great, for it allows filtering by any word in the title, artist name, matrix, label & nos, etc, anything you remember from a record, allowing you to locate it fast. But for right work of that, you need :
- to put a filing number on each record,
- to keep track of where it is stored, by a key related to the physical location
- to include this information in the database
- to RESPECT fully the locations, storing the record always in the same place, aided by the numbering, or to keep track of the new location if you ever change it, even if it is temporary...

I also use a printed catalogue in the Victor fashion, stored in the first shelf of the collection, allowing to search by title, artist, genre, etc, in case you don't want to use the excel file. This collects the important info of the record, numbers and location signature.

Another advantage of the excel file is that it serves to discographical purposes, allowing to sort by matrix numbers, etc, and it's great for putting dates of recording, etc.

But I share your thoughts about the charm and fun of certain surprises and a bit of random findings when looking for records in the shelves. This is part of the fun of taking a bunch of records to carry to the music room to play... An assorted lot is better and funnier than a bunch of records of the same style all them.

The storage can be done mixing genres, etc. Sometimes a too well classified collection is boring (i e, the bunch of records taken out to play for an hour is all by the same artist or type of music.. .)
The system I use allows to have mixed records stored together if one wants, taking care of registering properly the location in the database. My collection is basically sorted by chronological order of purchase (by numbers, and the numbers are added at the moment of cataloguing latest acquisitions). This mixes diverse types of music generally in the same lot of sequential numbers, for a chase for buying records usually brings home a mixed lot. This is funny for playing a bunch of records taken off the shelf, but it is a nightmare when you want to take all records by an artist, for instance, s they are all dispersed across the collection.
Actually I keep separately 10" from 12", and some separated groups for classicsl music in 10", organ, piano and chamber, vocal, etc . The light music 10" are all mixed (thousands) , and the classical 12" too (hundreds).

Vow, that was a fantastic collection, both of gramophones and records, and also very interesting to see the man behind the words too.
Thanks a lot for sharing, Carlos

That's fantastic Carlos..

Congratulations on your fine collection and thanks for sharing.

I showed my wife the video of your collection and I think I might be out of the dog house for a while,, at least until my next purchase.

Blizz