The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I ask this because yesterday I ran across a fairly large group of "Harmony Disc Records", made with the larger ¾" Center hole. I tried to play them on two machines. Both portables. I used some standard ¾" washers to build up the spindle so the record could be played on them. One is a Victor Orthophonic which I have installed and Acoustic Victor #2 mica diaphragm. The other is a Brunswick Panatrope Portable. I at first used a medium tone needle so the sound wouldn't be overwhelming. However the records sounded rather muddled. When I decided to see what would happen with a loud needle I got much fuller, clearer tone. That made me wonder if the grooves in the Harmony Records might not be cut a bit wider perhaps causing the needle that was thinner to not pick up the sound well? The really interesting thing was that the Panatrope made the sound way more substantial sounding than the #2 did.

Larry

The groove shapes definitely vary a lot amongst all 78's. Most steel needles should have a round tip of approx. 100 µm, but the variety is also as large as it is with the records.

I recall, that at some point, certainly pre-1910, the Gramophone Co. accidentally made several records with a groove width that proved to be too small and would have likely caused excessive wear and/or problems with reproduction. Their solution was to play the stampers at very low speed and heavy weight with a wider sapphire stylus to re-shape the groove. It gives me the shivers when thinking too much about it.

Even a 1927 Banner record turned out to have unusual wide grooves that would only play satisfactory with a corresponding larger stylus. This problem goes easily into the electric era too.

Haven't had a similar problem with Harmony records, most--perhaps all--of which were made by Columbia as I recall.

Clay

What I am impressed with is the largeness of tone that these early records have in them. I had read that Columbia was behind many of them and that rather goes with the somewhat deeper tones the Columbia records tend to display as well. Its also perhaps partly that the Panatrope reproducer simply brings out sound that most acoustic reproducers miss.

Larry