The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

This is the first and so far only time I've seen this, but I'm still new at the game. What was the purpose of this? Was it done by the manufacturer or end user? My guess is it came that way, it's too "neat" to have been done by an end user, but I could be wrong. It didn't affect the playing of the record any.

I may be wrong, but I think it originally had to do with it's use in an automated machine, i.e. jukebox.

I have a National Vocalium disc done like that, turns out there were some bad edge chips under the tape.

I would go with the jukebox theory. Disc Jockeys in later days put tape on the "unpopular" side of records so they wouldn't mistakenly be played on the air, but this is the "A" side of the record. Hm.

I really doubt it had anything to do with jukebox use. In fact, the tape would get plowed right through by a heavy jukebox pickup and it would serve no purpose that I can see or think of. Most jukebox mechanisms are far more gentle to 78s than almost any contemporary record changers were / are. My great grandfather had an extensive collection of 78s that came from a jukebox operator he knew in the 1930s and 1940s and none of those records, which I now own, had taped edges.

I have several masked edge discs as well that were part of a music library collection and as I recall reading on 78-l some years ago, the reasoning behind this was to reinforce the edge of the disc from edge flakes should it be accidentally bumped into another disc or something else...

Sean

coyote wrote:I would go with the jukebox theory. Disc Jockeys in later days put tape on the "unpopular" side of records so they wouldn't mistakenly be played on the air, but this is the "A" side of the record. Hm.

It's actually on both sides of the record. The very edge is covered also.

OrthoSean wrote:I really doubt it had anything to do with jukebox use. In fact, the tape would get plowed right through by a heavy jukebox pickup and it would serve no purpose that I can see or think of. Most jukebox mechanisms are far more gentle to 78s than almost any contemporary record changers were / are. My great grandfather had an extensive collection of 78s that came from a jukebox operator he knew in the 1930s and 1940s and none of those records, which I now own, had taped edges.

I have several masked edge discs as well that were part of a music library collection and as I recall reading on 78-l some years ago, the reasoning behind this was to reinforce the edge of the disc from edge flakes should it be accidentally bumped into another disc or something else...

Sean

They must have had some sort of mechanical device to do that. Looks like it would be a real hassle, if not impossible, doing it by hand on just one record, let alone an entire collection.

Right. A jukebox operator operating hundreds of machines and changing hundreds of records a week would certainly not be taking the time to do this to records which were paid for in three plays and usually thrown out after they were worn out.

Sean

Brinybay wrote:

coyote wrote:I would go with the jukebox theory. Disc Jockeys in later days put tape on the "unpopular" side of records so they wouldn't mistakenly be played on the air, but this is the "A" side of the record. Hm.

It's actually on both sides of the record. The very edge is covered also.

Have you tried removing it? It doesn't look like tape to me. I would think it could have been something like a grooved rubber band that was designed to stretch and fit around a 10" record. Though getting it on there without somehow breaking the record would have been enough hassle on it's own.

With age, such a thing (if that's what it is) may have become hardened and affixed to the record so that it resembles something like tape.

It the distant past I've also had a couple/few records like this, and I remember this accessory having a kind of gummy texture that was also slightly cracked and deteriorating.