The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

[quote="Sansenoi"]So, if my 4 disk set is victrolac I know one thing for sure. Aged victrolac can pit or flake.

There are no flakes in the bottom of the sleeves but there is pitting in the outer rim of the disks when viewed on edge. This could be a symptom of the pressing process of victrolac when manufactured perhaps. I don't know since there is much more pitting than flaking around the edges but no residue in the bottom of the sleeves the records have been sitting in for years.

Perhaps they were always that way since manufacture or some component of victrolac simply evaporates over time leaving a pit. Maybe I just got records made with a bad batch or an overheated pressing machine that allowed victrolac to evaporate around the edge when pressed and trimmed.

Nonetheless, I'm sure the quality of the records sound is fine and so far, my version of "the birth of the blues" RCA-Victor disks are the only example I can find on the internet that doesn't just say "victor". I guess I'll have something to talk about when someone looks at my disk set some day.

Thank you all for the wealth of information for this 78 newbie.[/quote

It sounds as if you have typical wartime shellac pressings.

During the Second World War, the presence of the Japanese navy in the Pacific pretty well cut us off fro our shellac supply. At the same time folks had money in their pockets to spend on luxuries, and records were not on the rationed list, so the demand for records was exceptionally high. Wartime pressings were made wit relatively less shellac binder than their pre-war counterparts, and are prone to chipping, flaking and cracking. In many cases they are damaged if played on some types of pre-war changers. In addition, since records were a seller's market at the time, and a record company could sell virtually anything that they offered to the public, a great many sub-standard pressings which would have been rejected as defective back in the 1930's were foisted on the public.

The "Rca Victor" labels on your pressings are not at all unusual. Just an example of a second or third pressing of a very popular album.

It is not at all unusual to find album sets pressed at the time of a label design change with different label patterns on some discs, for example, a classical Red Seal set sold with three discs bearing the 1937 "Scroll" label and two discs with a 1940 "Circle" label.

Later pressings, indeed. Those are post 1946 pressings the OP has. Considering they sport RCA Victor, and not just Victor.

Wartime pressings, in addition to often being noisier, can be more fragile too. It doesn't have to take much to accidentally break one...

I wonder what Canadian (RCA) Victor was up to for a time. I have some red seal discs like my Lalo Symphonie Espagnol with Yehudi Menuhin / Georges Enesco, that feel as though they are pressed on a hard vinyl-ish compound. Almost flexible, and they ring in about the key of D when you tap them.

The Canadian pressings if they are vinyl should say Deluxe on the label. The last Canadian 78 pressings do have a different feel to them, but I believe they are still a shellac compound, although very soft. If they're in good shape they sound wonderful, but they don't take uncompliant pickups and bad needles well at all. Nor can you just pile them up and expect them to take it. In fact, Canadian Berliner, Victor and later RCA pressings in general are softer that their American counterparts. The Montreal plant obviously used less abrasive in the mix from the earliest days. This means that if you find one that his been relatively unplayed; even the Brown Berliners from around 1908 can sound almost like a Z pressing. ( I said ALMOST... )
That said, it's very hard to find one that hasn't been played several times at least.

JRT

Interesting about the brown Berliners, the ones I have are all noisy as sin, much more than a contemporary black U.S. Victor. I thought maybe they were all like that. But I don't have more than about six or eight of them.

I believe I have some early 40's vinyl. They were made by the dodge brothers for the salesman kit. Film and record. I will dig them out and verify. Pretty sure I had the thought, did they make vinyls that early? I'll check and post some photos.