The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Question 1:
I have been using 7th Generation dish liquid to clean some of my records. It leaves them very shiny.
I looked at the ingredients and see that glycerin is one of them. Would that be harmful to the records and leave a residue on my 78 stylus?
Should I go back to Dawn.

Question 2:
Sometimes I find Pathé vertical cut records among the regular 78s I buy. Would they be trashed if they were played on a regular Victrola with steel needle. I ask this because most people don't know the difference and would attempt to play them.
I have the Pathé adaptor on my Victor IV with a sapphire ball stylus. When I play these records the volume is extremely low.

In our house we use Seventh Generation dish liquid; it doesn't seem to leave a residue on our dishes, but I've never used it on records.

My guess is that the glycerin is there mainly to help prevent the stuff from drying out the skin on the hands of the dishwasher!

If you try playing Pathé 78's with a steel needle on a lateral machine you'll get very little sound at all, and chances are the record won't track. A steel needle won;t trash them immediately but there is an excellent chance you'll end up cutting a repeating groove.

Compared to a regular record like a Victor, Pathé discs (at least the commonly found American edge start pressings) can have a low volume level. In part this is because Pathé recorded everything on wax cylinders and then mechanically dubbed them to disc masters. The quality of their dubs was very inconsistent- some are very clear and up front, some are dim, and there's no rhyme or reason to which.