The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

New to the world of Victrolas. Mine came with only 1 needle. Imagine my surprise when I found out it's 1 needle per record. Never heard of that. Even my dad didn't know, but he was a kid when they had one in his house. So is the differences between Loud, Medium and Soft just a reference to the volume they produce? Forgive me if there's already a post, but I could find it via the search.

There are many posts about needles on this board, and most members have their preferred supplier.

Check out this thread:

http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewtopic.php?t=29703

and this article referenced in that thread:

http://www.victor-victrola.com/Needle%20Article.htm

And yes, just one play per needle. I prefer Soundgen's soft tone needles.

I did find that article the 2nd link goes to. Thanks for the info. I see a bunch needles for sale on Amazon. Anyone buy those?

As AZ* writes, needle choice is largely a matter of preference.

You may find this article helpful:

https://www.antiquephono.org/basic-anti ... onal-tips/

George P.

I have found that where I just used to insert the various volumes of needles into the reproducer and tighten the thumb screw. However in recording a lot of things recently I found that sometimes moving a needle a bit lower in the stylus bar can help to clear up a record that is a bit fuzzy sounding or too loud. My Columbia Viva Tonal reproducer would lose some of that tendency to make a metallic overtone if I lowered the needle so that it didn't touch the very top of the holder. Experiment and you can find the best volume and location for your record. Generally for a plain steel needle I would play each side of one record before disposing it. Sometimes though you can sense that before the record ends the sound is faltering and a new needle will clear it up. I have a large set of 15 play needles. While I wouldn't want to play that amount with one steel needle I have found that usually they do just fine for multiple plays. If I detect any issue with the sound from the normal I replace it immediately.

Larryh, are you saying that typically you do not insert the needle all the way down into the soundbox? Meaning that the flat end of the needle does not come in to contact with the metal of the needle bar assembly at all. Just curious if I was understanding you correctly. I might have to play around later!

I got some NOS needle packets with a Victrola 8-9 that I bought. The packets had never been opened, but the needles were rusty. Does that mean they are trash?

Zkeener323 wrote:Larryh, are you saying that typically you do not insert the needle all the way down into the soundbox? Meaning that the flat end of the needle does not come in to contact with the metal of the needle bar assembly at all. Just curious if I was understanding you correctly. I might have to play around later!

Usually I just install them in the normal manner letting them all the way in. However in making some videos I discovered that if a record sounded to strident or tended to add some of a metallic sound over some loud portions it could sometimes be eliminated by lowering the needle. Since there are three volumes of needle available you can get about any volume level you need by changing the positions of the various needles. Too loud a needle will result in poor sound compared to one matching the output of the record more closely.

Zkeener323 wrote:Larryh, are you saying that typically you do not insert the needle all the way down into the soundbox? Meaning that the flat end of the needle does not come in to contact with the metal of the needle bar assembly at all. Just curious if I was understanding you correctly. I might have to play around later!

The needle bar functions as a lever with the fulcrum located at the pivots. The further the tip of the needle is from the fulcrum, the less mechanical advantage the lever has to vibrate the diaphragm. This will make the volume lower. Similarly, the thinner a needle is, the more it can flex when vibrating. This is called ‘compliance’ in mechanical terms and it is a degree of loss or gain depending upon the thickness of the needle. A thicker needle is stiffer and flexes less than a thinner needle, so transmits more vibration to the diaphragm resulting in greater volume. LarryH is manipulating the formula to achieve the least amount of compliance to the actual signal in the record groove to lower the overall volume and mute what he feels are undesirable characteristics in the recording. In the ideal world with an optimally functioning reproducer and a record in good condition, the needle may be fully inserted into the chuck. The Cheney brand phonographs have a little stair-step casting that allow the needle insert in to be indexed to change the distance from tip to fulcrum in order to control volume.

marcapra wrote:I got some NOS needle packets with a Victrola 8-9 that I bought. The packets had never been opened, but the needles were rusty. Does that mean they are trash?

Tumble them in a rock tumbler with some steel shot.