The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Spanish hmvs of the 1940s are shellac, and pretty good quiet surfaces. Also those from the 30s, but not in all brands. And there is a generation of late 1920s Spanish pressings, I've noticed this in certain AB series 12" classical records, which as noisy as the British ones. A real nightmare! Later pressings of the same t records are good, the problem with those later ones is that EMI Spain would have been short of parts (wearing out) so they started to make dubs for these late repressings, and these sound terrible. It's a pity that many classical sets repressed during the forties have always some dubbed sides, which sound much worse than their original counterparts. These dubs are noted by a tiny 'T' after the matrix numbers, followed by the the dubbing take number. I have several of those composite sets, looking around for original matrix pressings to substitute. Even some of them are electronically dubbed from worn original pressings, and you can clearly listen to the record hiss, and when the dubbing starts, the additional recorded hiss from the original pressing used for the dubbing. Why they didn't graphite the original pressing and proceed to electroplating, and making a new matrix from here, etc? This would have sounded better than the electronically dubbed record...

Just my two cents: I always buy European pressings of my favorite later discs. The shellac, even if crackly from HMV seems more durable than any Decca or god forbid, a Capital from the U.S.A. Maybe this seems Evident because horseshoe pickups and acoustic gramophones seem to be far more popular in Europe than in America. For instance: it’s easy to find a horseshoe pickup “type” made in Europe, than it is in the states. that’s why I shop for them on European auction sites. Here in the states, the transfer to piezo Crystal pick ups was overwhelming. Hence there is a married difference in the composition of The disc but I always say, trial and error will show you what you can and can’t play on a particular machine.

I'm thinking of buying a set of late 40s/early 50s Mexican RCA Victors. Anybody have experience with Mexican pressings, shellac-quality-wise? I would guess the windup era lasted a bit longer down there than in the states.

I do, it's the same quality shellac that was used by RCA Victor up here by that point in time. I would imagine that a couple of plays on an acoustic machine would shred them up pretty good, so I'd not be playing them on anything except modern equipment if I wanted them to still sound (and look)good....

Sean

OrthoSean wrote:I do, it's the same quality shellac that was used by RCA Victor up here by that point in time. I would imagine that a couple of plays on an acoustic machine would shred them up pretty good, so I'd not be playing them on anything except modern equipment if I wanted them to still sound (and look)good....

Sean

Thanks Sean! You saved me $50.