The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Can anyone please tell me where I might be able to buy some Blank Victor Home recording discs for a 1930 Victor Electrola
(1930 HMV Radiogram as they are called in New Zealand)
Also
A manual I have seen a 1929 manual but I think they are slightly different can anyone tell me if this is correct.
Interested in any other information on this model.
Many thanks
Kiwi

About 10 years ago a friend was looking for some blank Victor home recording discs. After a lot of searching he found a company in San Francisco called Nipper Talking Machine Supply Company. They sold these blank Victor home recording discs but they were very expensive. I remember my friend telling me he bought one for $200 to record on with his phonograph. I don't know if that company in San Francisco is still in business but they sold the blank discs at one time. My friend let me make a scan of the label of one of his. I have attached it. Also you can't use a regular needle to use on the recording disc. You have to use a special needle that is hard to find.

I have seen disks come up on ebay from time to time. I suppose you need to know what type of disk you are looking for. I assume you are after the victor pre grooved disks as opposed to blank acetate disks?

I remember this discussion being had elsewhere that acetate disks age and the acetate becomes hard over time. The result is that even if you find a blank vintage acetate disk you may not be able to get a good recording on it because of this hardening. The result is a lot of hiss due to the messy groove cut

I'm not sure if this is an issue with those early pre-grooved disks.

RJ

I wish I could read everything printed on those sleeves!

Viva-Tonal wrote:I wish I could read everything printed on those sleeves!

If I zoom in (in Firefox), I can almost read the ‘To Recipient’ text.

Maybe Shane has an enlarged version?

— MordEth

Kiwi wrote:Can anyone please tell me where I might be able to buy some Blank Victor Home recording discs for a 1930 Victor Electrola
(1930 HMV Radiogram as they are called in New Zealand)
Also
A manual I have seen a 1929 manual but I think they are slightly different can anyone tell me if this is correct.
Interested in any other information on this model.
Many thanks
Kiwi

I found a few of these a couple of years ago in an old barn. Mine are in perfect untouched, unrecorded on condition in their original sleeves. I just have to track down where I put them. I wouldn't mind selling a couple of them. I have no idea what they may be worth.

Ok, I found them, I have 4 of them. I would be willing to sell two of them, and as I said they are perfect. In the original sleeves. I am not sure what a fair price would be, so I will try to check it out.They can be recorded on both sides.









Bruce

Bruce,

Excellent photos! Would you happen to have larger versions of these? (If not, and if you do not mind, I would like to make additional board graphics with them.)

I’ve always liked Victor’s line art.

I note that they mention using the ‘special’ needle; what exactly made it ‘special’? (And was the advisory about putting a record under the recording disc to be sure that this needle was positioned properly?)

— MordEth

Go right ahead and use them as you wish.

If the turntable on one of those recording-capable machines is anything like the ribbed turntables on Orthophonic or earlier machines, using a regular record underneath the recording blank would give a proper hard, flat surface for the disc to rest on while being recorded.

Just theorising here; as I understand it, these recording discs are a soft plastic, and I expect would likely flex under the pressure of the weight used for recording, were they used on such a ribbed turntable. The result would be an unacceptably wow-laden recording.

I've never seen any of this technology up close, ever. I have read that to play back one of these early Victor home records on modern equipment, an unusually large diameter stylus is a must--4 or 5 mil. Standard 2.7 to 3 mil styli ride below where the embossing generally is in the grooves of these discs. So I'd think the special recording styli are also a larger-than-normal tip size, so as not to cut or gouge the plastic, but only to emboss it under the weight of the arm, etc.

Viva-Tonal wrote:Just theorising here; as I understand it, these recording discs are a soft plastic, and I expect would likely flex under the pressure of the weight used for recording, were they used on such a ribbed turntable. The result would be an unacceptably wow-laden recording.

Viva-Tonal,

Thanks for the explanation, that makes a lot of sense, and I had not considered what they were made out of—I think that if I had thought about it at all, I probably would have thought that they were also rigid records.

Viva-Tonal wrote:I've never seen any of this technology up close, ever. I have read that to play back one of these early Victor home records on modern equipment, an unusually large diameter stylus is a must—4 or 5 mil. Standard 2.7 to 3 mil styli ride below where the embossing generally is in the grooves of these discs. So I'd think the special recording styli are also a larger-than-normal tip size, so as not to cut or gouge the plastic, but only to emboss it under the weight of the arm, etc.

This makes sense also; I knew that for doing modern transfers you would want to have more than one stylus to get a good recording, but I was curious if someone informed could give a definitive answer to what was ‘special’ about the ‘special’ needle.

These days, that terminology makes it sound as if it were held back in school for not being the sharpest needle in the packet.

Seriously, though, you guys have been very helpful and informative.

— MordEth