The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hello everyone! I'm a total newbie to the world of antique phonographs and recordings, having only experience with modern LPs. After a recent run in with an Edison LU37 phonograph at a tag sale I became very curious about Diamond Discs and immediately fell in love with the sound. I passed on the phonograph as it was overpriced at $350 and had some "fixing" done over fairly recently, including a shoddily replaced grill cloth and an odd looking replacement lid hinge.

Fortunately though while scouring craigslist I came across a lot of 129 DDs for $75. I figured it was a fair price and picked them up. The issue is that they are very dirty. I tried cleaning them with cotton pads and 91% alcohol with some success but there is still what appear to be mineral deposits (mildew?) on the surface. Some even have what looks like calcium or salt deposited on the surface of the discs. I'm hoping I can save them as they are all in otherwise good condition. They are a mix of the engraved labels and the paper label discs. Does anyone have advice for getting them cleaned off?

A link to the ad is posted below but I'll post pictures of the actual discs when I get home tonight.

http://westernmass.craigslist.org/atq/3839099441.html

I always use straight denatured alcohol to clean my DDs. You want to stay away from water. It is not the friend of the material used for the core of DDs.

Clay

Hello, Emilio,

I have also cleaned Diamond Discs using cotton pads and 91% isopropyl alcohol, taking pains to keep the liquid away from the edges, spindle hole, and any lamination cracks. As Clay suggests, denatured alcohol would be much better.

I also have some Diamond Discs with what appear to be white mineral deposits on the surface. No amount of alcohol or cleaning would remove this white matter. I'm pretty sure this is the remains of mildew which grew on the Condensite surface and ate away at that surface. I have not yet played back any of mine in this condition, but I imagine they will be extremely noisy and possibly will mistrack.

Best wishes, Mark

Thanks guys! I'll try some denatured alcohol. The 91% wasn't doing much beyond removing surface oils. I fear a majority of the records will not meet my standards for keeping. I recently picked up my first DD Player (C 150) with 39 mint DDs and I am of the mentality that it is far better to have a limited amount of very well kept records than a larger collection of records I won't enjoy listening to due to high noise and other issues related to what appears to be the same type of surface wear mentioned above (mold?). I basically have what appear to be clean discs but they have visible spotting on them. Some though are near mint and shall remain in my collection.

What should I sell these less desirable discs for? I'm not looking to scam anyone and honestly may even give them away. I'm in Western, MA if anyone is interested.

Bear in mind that some DDs were never without surface noise, particularly from the WWI era when there were workarounds due to chemical scarcity.

Clay

Thanks for the tip Clay. I appreciate the insight. Part of me really wants to try and salvage as many records as possible but I have a fear (irrational?) of playing discs that are not in the best shape due to a perceived risk of damage to the reproducer/stylus. Thoughts?

I am sure others will chime in, but I haven't experienced that. Of course I wouldn't play a record with severe cracks or a chunk missing from the playing area, but just some surface noise is not likely to do any damage. These are pretty tough machines.

Clay

I recently bought a mint, new old stock DD on eBay and was disappointed on receipt to find that it was splotchy, encrusted with some kind of light-colored gunk that alcohol would not remove, even with vigorous circular polishing with a soft cotton cloth. I examined the disk under a microscope and the crust appeared to consist of a matrix of fibers and crystals. I could only suspect that the original paper jacket had decomposed and fused to the record. As I peered through the microscope, I gently prodded at the mess with a bamboo toothpick and discovered that I could flake it off a little at a time pretty clean without damaging the grooves. That approach was going to take forever, so I put the record on a turntable, held the toothpick in my hand and "played" the record while pointing the toothpick into the oncoming record surface. After several passes, the record cleaned up with no damage and sounded fine.

The Collector's Guide to Edison Records is available at:
http://monarchrecs.com/upcoming.html

I haven't yet bought it myself, but it's bound to be a wonderful resource, given Michael Sherman's exemplary Collector's Guide to Victor Records and the information imparted just by the sample pages. It will tell you what to expect in terms of pressing quality over the years that Edison DDs were produced.

-HA

Harold Aherne wrote:The Collector's Guide to Edison Records is available at:
http://monarchrecs.com/upcoming.html

I haven't yet bought it myself, but it's bound to be a wonderful resource, given Michael Sherman's exemplary Collector's Guide to Victor Records and the information imparted just by the sample pages. It will tell you what to expect in terms of pressing quality over the years that Edison DDs were produced.

-HA

I have it. It is a useful little reference, and as collectors' reference books go it is amazingly inexpensive at $15.95!

Clay