The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

This is sort of an annoying pet peeve when it comes to finding 78s but I’m Just curious, How many Of you folks have came across modified normal 78s to play on Standard machines? And have you ever seen even bigger holes drilled for Harmony, United, and even Artenio machines? (Yikes) and has anyone tried to replicate the hole to fit on their Busy Bee machine?

AmberolaAndy wrote:How many Of you folks have came across modified normal 78s to play on Standard machines?

I have seen them from time to time.

AmberolaAndy wrote:And have you ever seen even bigger holes drilled for Harmony, United, and even Artenio machines?

I may have. It certainly wouldn't be someting I've encountered very often.

AmberolaAndy wrote:and has anyone tried to replicate the hole to fit on their Busy Bee machine?

No. I don't own a Busy Bee machine besides.

I have some Victors and Marconis that have been drilled for Standard spindles. As far as the Victors, stuff happens but the Marconis are scarce enough that I wasn't happy to see that. I have a friend who has filled in the holes in some of these with epoxy and redrilled the spindle holes.

Jim

The first ERJ Monarch I acquired had been drilled out for a Standard, which was rather a bummer...

-Bill

I have several 78's on which someone enlarged the hole, but instead of drilling, it looks like they used a pocket knife or chisel. They are common records and still play fine, but my gosh...

Frisco The Beagle wrote:I have several 78's on which someone enlarged the hole, but instead of drilling, it looks like they used a pocket knife or chisel. They are common records and still play fine, but my gosh...

I also have several records on which the central hole has been enlarged in quite an awful way. Some of these were not awfully misused and still play remarkably well, which adds to the mistery of why anyone would ever do such a silly thing. As a side note, I doubt that Standard or Aretino machines ever made their way to Europe, or at least Italy specifically, so I really wonder why anyone would mess up the hole of a record. Still, records like these are not an unfrequent find.

Marco Gilardetti wrote:

Frisco The Beagle wrote:I have several 78's on which someone enlarged the hole, but instead of drilling, it looks like they used a pocket knife or chisel. They are common records and still play fine, but my gosh...

I also have several records on which the central hole has been enlarged in quite an awful way. Some of these were not awfully misused and still play remarkably well, which adds to the mistery of why anyone would ever do such a silly thing. As a side note, I doubt that Standard or Aretino machines ever made their way to Europe, or at least Italy specifically, so I really wonder why anyone would mess up the hole of a record. Still, records like these are not an unfrequent find.

Mostly for budgetary reasons. Those machines you got practically for free, but you were suckered into buying that brand of discs unless modifications were done to the spindle. They weren’t thinking about people in the far future year of 2020 who don’t appreciate things done to records who long outlived their original owners to solve their contemporary problem.

Then again, I bet there was someone who might have found a Standard machine and regular 78s at a junk shop in the 1960s and didn’t find any Standard records locally and did things to 78s to fit on the machine.

Occasionally someone will order reproduction discs from me and ask that the spindle hole be drilled out for a Standard. I'm happy to do it and it's a nice alternative to drilling an original. It would however be easier to swap the spindle shaft and turntable with one from a Columbia...

I just ended up with a basket-case Standard Talking Machine Model A, and it is a nice enough record player. Not sure if I will keep it. But the thing is, that turntable will swap fine with one of those from JAS Antiques and involve no spindle swap at all, for the new platter comes with a spindle built-in. If I were to keep it I'd probably have one of those accessory turntables just because.

donniej wrote:Occasionally someone will order reproduction discs from me and ask that the spindle hole be drilled out for a Standard. I'm happy to do it and it's a nice alternative to drilling an original. It would however be easier to swap the spindle shaft and turntable with one from a Columbia...

But I believe that the owner of a Standard machine looks out for records specifically made for that machine, and having custom reproductions made for his/her machine is super exclusive! If I owned an out-of-standard, outstanding machine, personally I wouldn't want to adapt it to standard records, I'd rather want specific records to go with it. That's the funny and exclusive part of the game. Otherwise I'd just buy a normal boring gramophone and normal boring records.

Just my thoughts, of course!