The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I'm looking for a strobe disc to put on my turntable; not just for 78 rpm, but every rpm down to about 70, and maybe up to 80.

Does anyone have such a thing that they could e-mail me, send me, sell me...? My G&T's sound like chipmunks!

Your help appreciated!

Nat

On Nauck's website you can find a free strobe program that allows you to make strobe's for every speed you want. You can even choose between 50 and 60 Hz.

http://www.78rpm.com/rescat/strobe_info.htm

I am using Strobo by J. Vernet Morges, which has an easy-to-use graphical interface. In case you do not want to put it right to paper, you can use a PDF printer such as PDFCreator and scale it to your preferences.

A lot more elegant way is to use a simple laser tacho which allows you to adjust to certain speeds much easier. I have one of these and it has exactly the same precision as my other one which did cost $100. This is one here does only cost $17: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0655421113. You may find even cheaper offer directly from Hong Kong.

Thanks very much to you both! I bought a tachometer from Amazon that I believe will do the trick - never knew there was such a gizmo; guess I'm getting old! But thanks again!

Nat

They have been around for quite some years but you could pay a few hundred $ for one then. If you run short of the reflective tape, you can try regular white paper strips. They usually work quite well too. The reflective strip should not be more than 2-3 mm wide or measuring might be harder to take.

WDC wrote: A lot more elegant way is to use a simple laser tacho which allows you to adjust to certain speeds much easier. I have one of these and it has exactly the same precision as my other one which did cost $100. This is one here does only cost $17: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0655421113. You may find even cheaper offer directly from Hong Kong.

Does this device also work okay for cylinders? I've almost ruined my eyes already using a small stroboscope on the end of the mandrel.

Valecnik wrote:Does this device also work okay for cylinders? I've almost ruined my eyes already using a small stroboscope on the end of the mandrel.

Of course, I haven't used stroboscopes in years.

Thank you Norman,

I've already placed the order on eBAY.

Regards, bruce

I purchased one the units Norman pointed to and finally got a chance to try it today. It works great. I took a 50's crapo record, a delaminating Diamond disc, a moderately moldy 2 minute cylinder and a slightly split Blue Amberol (I.e. nothing worth keeping) and affixed the sticky backed reflective tape to each of them and tried them on several machines. I have always set the speed by ear and I learned I have them all set fast. It seemed that for every one, placing the needle on the record slows things down 1-3 rpm.

This will be an extremely useful tool. Not a bad investment for $17, and it arrived in the mail in 2 days.

Thanks for the pointer Norman!

I got a cheap laser tachometer on Amazon, and put the reflective tape on a Mario Lanza record I never hope to hear again, and it works wonderfully. Some of the very early Carusos (1902 Milan) play at just over 70 rpm, so it's been very helpful!