Choprdoc wrote: Tue Sep 24, 2024 9:27 pm
Thanks Bill. I have never seen a record that thick before. I have for to clean all of them. They are in pretty good shape
Do not clean the Edisons by getting them wet with water. They are laminated pressings, and water will do bad things to the core. Edison specified that cleaning should be with a rag moistened with denatured alcohol. I've never had especially good luck with that method, to be honest, but there's no question that you mustn't expose the core to water.
Some further background:
Edison's diamond discs, of which your records are examples, were recorded with the so-called "vertical cut" or "hill and dale" method, meaning the groove is modulated (i.e., wiggles) up and down. Conventional shellac 78s--everything by Victor, Columbia, Decca, Brunswick, and on and on--were mostly recorded with the lateral cut method, meaning the groove is modulated from side to side. Hence, a Victrola reproducer (or modern phono cartridge set to "mono"), which is responsive only to lateral modulation, will yield no musical sound, only noise, from an Edison disc. Moreover, Edison discs were designed for playback with precision-ground diamond styli. A steel needle will promptly destroy the groove. Note that a few shellac, steel needle type labels produced vertical cut records or produced them for a short while before going to lateral modulation. Lyric, OKeh, Vocalion, and Gennett are examples. For the most part, you're unlikely to encounter the vertical issues from these makers, but if you get a steel needle record that just doesn't give any musical sound, be suspicious that's why.
As long as I'm about this, the same caution applies to Pathé "sapphire records," which also are vertical cut and also were designed for playback with a jewel stylus, in their case a "sapphire ball" of immense radius. Again, playing one of these with a steel needle will promptly destroy it. Most Pathé acoustic records and a small number of the electrical ones had this groove cut, as did a number of immitators in the United States (e.g., Rishell and US Rex) and France (e.g., Ideal, Perfectaphone, Disque Diamond, ...). Pathé records labeled "Actuelle" or "Perfect," however, were lateral cut dubs playable with steel needles. They usually have something like "needle cut" on their labels somewhere. You may see French pressings labelled "aiguille"; those are needle cut, "aiguille" being French for "needle." If they say "sans aiguille" or the like, however, they are for the sapphire ball, as that is French for "without needle."
Welcome to the hobby! It's great fun, not least because there's always something new to learn. I hope the foregoing will be a helpful start.
