The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Many needles that you find in old phonogrpahs have been used and they will quickly ruin records. I would definitley steer clear of the ones you have, which also look to have a bit of rust, and just get new ones.

I suspect that the thiner soft tone needles might be a bit gentler on records because they have a little bit of flex in them. Sometimes you need loud tone needles for the early acoustic records though to get a decent amount of volume out of them.

Clay

One other question: there's a silver lever hanging down from the tone arm (see picture below). Any idea what it controls? There are stops that it can bump against when the tone arm moves to its extreme positions.

That lever is to trigger an automatic stop. The stop mechanism should be under the turntable- it might be pushed aside or broken, or it might have been removed.

Regarding the needles you photographed, the top one is a Loud tone needle, the second one a Medium tone needle, and the third one was a type that was readily available through the 1950s and into the early 60s in the US, made by an outfit called Fidelitone (Recoton also marketed them). That last one worked as a Loud tone needle, and was sold as being good for 10 plays [not a good idea]. A Soft tone needle will be thinner, but about the length of the Medium. I think the reason we usually find loud and medium needles is that most people used up their supplies of soft tone ones. New ones are available now, thank goodness.

Thanks hillndalefan, that's helpful information. My new needles should arrive soon.