The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hi, I hate to ask this, and I know Chromium Needles are terrible for your records since they are too hard, but I have an Orthophonic 10-50 and I use them and Tungstone Needles when playing multiple records on the changer (never my best records). How many decent condition victor scrolls can you play with a chromium before you need to change it? 10, 15, 50?? You can hear when the needles go out but I don’t want to push them too far. I would also like to be able to play at least 24 records (the 10-50 plays 12 at a time) before having to change once since they are so expensive is this “safe”?

It's tough for me to recommend chromium needles for your 10-50. Tungs-Tone needles put enough wear already on your records, and some folks wouldn't use even these on any records they cared about. Jukebox needles, such as Permo-point, though packaged to play hundreds of sides, were for commercial jukeboxes whose records would be changed out and discarded.
Have you considered trying new old-stock cactus thorn needles? On pristeen Orthophonics you can play ten sides or so before resharpening. One needle can be repointed a couple dozen times before it gets too short to use. The best part for me is that you can play your nicer records without worrying much about accelerated wear.
New old-stock needles such as Decca or Peter Grey can often be found on Ebay, along with different style sharpeners.
I'm currently using needles I've made myself from the Arizona barrel cactus and a circular needle sharpening device.
The tradeoff with these needles is less volume and treble, but the size of the 10-50 horn still gives adequate output, IMO.
Enjoy your 10-50, whatever needles you use. Mine is my best-sounding Orthophonic, easily beating my Credenza!
Bob