The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Most of us have seen broken wax cylinders and even experienced the heart sink of a broken wax record. Many of these have broken over the years, even worse....Edison 4 minute Amberols that just break on the shelf.

I sold most of my Edison cylinders off back a few years ago. I had decided to go the reproduction cylinder route (Vulcan, Berlin, Edisonia). I also buy Indestructible cylinders depending on the titles and condition. While not all titles have been released, there is a great variety of cylinders for playing and displaying without the worry of a broken record.

How many of our fellow members have went the plastic cylinder route?

I understand your pain. I'm sure we all have had the same experience. I think there is nothing like original cylinders. I have many of them and not one plastic.

Rich Gordon

I especially like Indestructibles. Excellent sound by and large. I have some of the new resin cylinders, but limited due to their cost, and a lot of Blue Amberols. Stopping buying wax Amberols only took a short learning curve due to their extreme fragility. I've had pretty good luck with 2-minute black wax cylinders after learning quickly to avoid those affected by mold.

Clay

I've gotten rid of nearly all my brown wax cylinders, but I still have many 2M black ones. With careful handling there's really very little risk of breakage. I've only broken 2 that I can remember, and that's going back many, many years.

I don't completely avoid wax Amberols, but I don't buy expensive ones, simply because they are so easily cracked.

The only motivation I have anymore for buying a wax cylinder is A) I want to someday make a resin copy because I like the song or B) It's moldy black wax that I can shave. I never throw out the ones that break, I save the bits. I want to cast disc blanks for my vertical disc recorder that Jerry sold me, but I haven't yet tried. I have lots of broken wax to work with, so that's a start!

I haven't bought wax cylinders for years. The only time I will get them is if they are included with a machine. I will only buy 2 & 4 min Indestructible ones and Blue Amberols. In the old says, the common name for the 4 min. Amberols were Damberols.
Harvey Kravitz

I recently got a large collection of Columbia 2-minute wax records, included with the purchase of my second BQ machine. Same as my first one, the machine & the records have been sitting in a BLAZING HOT Summer / FREEZING COLD Winter attic. Buffalo is humid in Summer, but an attic @ 125F doesn't have much relative humidity. Anyway, I think that's why most of the records are perfectly without "mold". The first batch was around 70, and this one is well over 400 - all without wear, scratches, or mold. I bet they were purchased at a discount, when the Indestructibles were coming onto the market. Columbias appear to be especially prone to damage and "mold", at least as I see in the Nauck auctions. I won't look to buy any wax records because of that, but I'm happy to have what I do.

PS - I thought "Damberols" referred to the 'dubbed-from-disc' Blue Amberols. No?

Wow, what an odd approach. I have more cylinders than I will ever have time to hear, and other than my recent infamous "contents may have shifted" garage door incident, have broken perhaps 5 in 20 years of active bumbling about.

Hell man, they survived a century already...ain't much gonna change now.

Is the idea that you're afraid you might break them, or that you already have a history of breaking them, or something else I can't even guess?

PeterF wrote:Wow, what an odd approach. I have more cylinders than I will ever have time to hear, and other than my recent infamous "contents may have shifted" garage door incident, have broken perhaps 5 in 20 years of active bumbling about.

Hell man, they survived a century already...ain't much gonna change now.

Is the idea that you're afraid you might break them, or that you already have a history of breaking them, or something else I can't even guess?

Avoiding expensive Wax Amberols seems to be the idea here.

PeterF wrote:
Is the idea that you're afraid you might break them, or that you already have a history of breaking them, or something else I can't even guess?

It means he's a rube. If you can't handle it, don't dangle it.