The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

The thread below got me thinking about vintage home recordings, whether they be wax cylinders, wire spools, or home recorded discs. I'm sure that as board members, we have a pretty good collective of interesting home recordings, whether they be from our family or something we found "in the wild".

I thought it would be neat to start a thread where we might share some of this stuff.

Here's something interesting from my family that was recovered from my uncle's backyard shed. I'm 30 years old, and never knew my grandfather... he died in 1962. I'm a 3rd generation musician. His guitar (a 1951 Fender Telecaster) is still in the family, and this was the first guitar I learned to play on. He played in a local country-western band back in the 1950s.

After my uncle brought me the mysterious wire reels, it took me 6 months to find a working wire recorder. You could only imagine the look on my face when the first sound on the first reel was my grandfather singing and playing his then-new guitar. Thankfully I had hooked up the machine to a CD burner, because most of the wire turned to a rat's nest when I tried to rewind it. There's a bit of a radio broadcast at the beginning, so give it a few seconds before the music starts:

http://www.box.net/shared/dpzq9vlux4

Shane,

Thanks for sharing that recording—I found it quite interesting and enjoyable. If you don’t mind me asking (I tend to be a bit compulsive about my ID3 tags)—what’s your grandfather’s name, and do you know the title of the song?

— MordEth

What a priceless piece of personal family history. Thanks alot for sharing.

Bruce

MordEth wrote:Shane,

Thanks for sharing that recording—I found it quite interesting and enjoyable. If you don’t mind me asking (I tend to be a bit compulsive about my ID3 tags)—what’s your grandfather’s name, and do you know the title of the song?

— MordEth

Also, may I asked where your grandfather lived?

You may want to double-check that Fender! In '51, the only model available was the Fender 'Broadcaster' which became the Telecaster in '52. '51 Broadcasters are very valuable instruments (so are early Teles for that matter) so you may want to be sure exactly what you have. What a great family heirloom no matter what model it is! WOW!

John M

Great recording Shane, I would like to hear the entire cut.

I have aquired a few 78 home recordings, mostly letters home, reading passages, and a cute little recording of a kids birthday celebration.

I have one home recorded brown wax cylinder that I got as part of a lot of cylinders at an auction and was anxious to listen to it. To my surprise, what was recorded was some really bad disco music from the 70's. The level was low and it was only a part of the song.

I was hoping for some interesting tidbit of history and instead had visions of some young kid who found Grandpa's takin' machine in the attic and started playing with it.

I guess it will have more relevance by about 2075

Brad wrote:Great recording Shane, I would like to hear the entire cut.


I have one home recorded brown wax cylinder that I got as part of a lot of cylinders at an auction and was anxious to listen to it. To my surprise, what was recorded was some really bad disco music from the 70's.

I guess it will have more relevance by about 2075

Disco.....Hmmmmmm...... I'm not so sure I agree with your 2075 comment Brad

Somewhere (I can't lay my hands on it) I have one of those green discs from a "Sound Scriber" dictation machine which has my dad and some of his friends fooling around in the late 40's-early 50's. Pretty juvenile stuff, a parody commercial for "Rice Sloppies" with a customer testimonial: "Ohhhhhhh, Martha, get the pail (vomiting)"

The sad thing is that it's exactly the sort of material that I found screamingly funny as a kid.

JohnM wrote:
You may want to double-check that Fender! In '51, the only model available was the Fender 'Broadcaster' which became the Telecaster in '52. '51 Broadcasters are very valuable instruments (so are early Teles for that matter) so you may want to be sure exactly what you have. What a great family heirloom no matter what model it is! WOW!

John M

Well, it was originally the Broadcaster, then they got harassed by Gretsch who made a range of drums they called Broadkaster (note the different spelling). In the interim, before they were called Telecasters, Fender simply clipped off the 'Broadcaster' part of their remaining label stock.

Guitars with this 'edited' label on the headstocks are called 'No-casters'.

So then it is a "no-caster'?

Where did your grandfather live?

John

The guitar is marked Telecaster... it actually dates from December 1951, so this is among the very first group of guitars to be marked as such. My grandfather lived in California.

Unfortunately, that's all there is of this particular recording... it sounds like he made a mistake right at the end, and shut off the recorder. There are other recordings on the spool of wire, but this is the only one of him singing.