The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

All I have to say, is he likes to record, and does a pretty decent job, however he has insulted Myself and Paul Morris to the point where we will no longer sell him blanks. I will not shave any original brown wax, they are just of too historical importance, no matter how poor the recording left on them is, such as the stamped brown wax I found, I have never seen one like it. I cringed when I saw so many beautiful examples of brown wax shaved. Gold molded records should not be used to record, it is very hard on cutters.

I am waiting for my new molds to be finished, before I fill some orders, and I am getting anxious if they are ever going to get done, I want to have at least a few dozen ready for Union and with the 14-30 day cure time it is cutting it close. I have over engineered the new ones to overcome all the pitfalls I have learned about molding over the years. It seems machinists never want to make anything as the designer intended and that frustrates me, every thing I put in the design has a definite reason, and it should be made exactly as I have specified.

edisonphonoworks wrote:All I have to say, is he likes to record, and does a pretty decent job, however he has insulted Myself and Paul Morris to the point where we will no longer sell him blanks. I will not shave any original brown wax, they are just of too historical importance, no matter how poor the recording left on them is, such as the stamped brown wax I found, I have never seen one like it. I cringed when I saw so many beautiful examples of brown wax shaved. Gold molded records should not be used to record, it is very hard on cutters.

I am waiting for my new molds to be finished, before I fill some orders, and I am getting anxious if they are ever going to get done, I want to have at least a few dozen ready for Union and with the 14-30 day cure time it is cutting it close. I have over engineered the new ones to overcome all the pitfalls I have learned about molding over the years. It seems machinists never want to make anything as the designer intended and that frustrates me, every thing I put in the design has a definite reason, and it should be made exactly as I have specified.

I know what you mean, I have a couple black wax cylinders that are quite moldy but I still enjoy playing them on
occasion. A cylinder would have to be more mold than wax for me to consider shaving it, assuming I was into recording.
My restoration work is very time consuming so I figure I will hold off on recording for now.

Valecnik wrote:Hope I'm not offending any "Standard Fans but to me those old standard machines always sound pretty clunky and the records don't seem to be very well recorded. Neither the records or the machines interest me much.

Now Bruce, I must step in and DEFEND those Standard Talking Machines!

Now, after a few things are done..............

-replace all those soft brass gears
-install a new mainspring
-chip away and replace the hardened rubber analyzing reproducer mount rubber, and all 3 screw dampers........new diaphragm, and 2 new gaskets
-swear a-LOT because the motor doesn't run right
-replace the soft governor fiber gear
-swear some more

............................they actually sound QUITE NICE INDEED!!!!!!!!!

That is, if you can find some Standard Disc records that aren't beat up. They do exist.

I know where he can stick his Dime Store Reamers!

Honestly, this is so pointless. A video of a guy showing us all how to make a small hole into a bigger one! That's a hole as big as he is!

I won't get into the "should he / should he not" drill ANY record debate as I agree with Shane, so long as they are all his records, it's his business but I think the machine he wants to play them on is a totally uninspiring and very tired looking box of nothing.

If it was a decent example of the horn model Standard it might be easier to stomach.

I hope other idiots out there don't copy him.

he only did it for ONE demonstration! showing what was possible, he does not do this on a regular basis, i dont think he even still has this machine!
and you do know benjamin knows of this forum and is a member! so he can read everything you write!

Back when I was Master Kirtley's age I was always on the look out for good records to play on my open works Standard. I found that an old 75 watt American Beauty soldering iron in my father's tool chest would burn a perfect hole with no risk to the record. Caruso records in particular sounded nice on that little machine, which was not suprising, since they tend to sound wonderful on 'most any acoustic machine. In high school print shop I even printed up the green and white "Standard Record" overpaste labels, the ones with the white space for artist ant title information. I would fill in the information with an ols Remington typewriter fitted with a purple ribbon form a news service teletype.

I gave most of these records away when I went away to college. Imagine my suprise at finding a group of them in a box or records at a phonograph auction. I attempted to purchase them, but was out-bid by a dealer, who attempted to flog these "rarities" on eBay for some time.

These days I stick to proper "Standard" discs.