The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I recently noticed one of these "Everplay" needles (NOS) sold for an unreal $150.00+ on Ebay. I guess if you divide that by 27,000 it's not too bad of a deal. Many years ago I found a master carton and a sample pack with one. Personally, after trying one......I did not find it all that great. More of a gimmick IMHO.

Actually, these are great for a 10-50 or any other automatic ortho changer. I too have a case of them that I picked up several years back for basically a song (they were on eBay and listed wrong). I've had one in my 10-50 for as many years now and it's fantastic, far better sounding to my ears then tungstones ever were.

Sean

That's a good point (no pun intended). I never thought about how convenient they would be on a machine like yours. Are they not really the same as a "tungstone" needle??. How great also finding a case....and on Ebay. That was lucky. A man here gave me my case. I think he found it in a garage sale. I noticed there are at least to "slightly" different envelopes. Is your master carton exactly like mine??.

Yes, my carton is the same. Mine came stuffed with other promo paperwork as well, but basically the same setup you have there. I don't think they're exactly the same as a regular Victor Tungstone, though, even though the material of the point seems close. The tone these provide is far more smooth to my ears and the material seems a tad softer, I haven't noticed the heavy wear on records regular TTs will do if you're playing an already somewhat worn disc. In Victor's defense, a clean and unworn disc will play just fine and not wear heavily with a regular TT, but if there's a trace of wear going on, the TT digs in and wear seems to accelerate while with the Everplay, that doesn't happen.

Sean

Well, next time I venture downtown, I'll check out 1221 Turner St. I see the postmark is from 1924, and it wouldn't surprise me one bit to find the house at 1221. That residential part of Allentown, largely row houses, is remarkably intact, with most structures dating from around the beginning of the 20th century. I just checked the phone book, and there are over two dozen Wittmans listed. It's a not uncommon Pennsylvania German name around here. Stay tuned....

Well, that would be cool to see. I tried to see the companies office at 218 S Wabash Chicago. However, on Google Earth that street was not scanned...???. It looks like the city's over head subway runs down Wabash. From what I can see, the old building appears to be there. Here is a pic of the McClurg building (1900). check it out.....how cool is that??. Look forward to read what you discover Henry. BTW, I made a mistake...There are that least three variations of the envelope. This one I just found in a drawer was for the Canadian market. Note the rubber stamping on the front "Canadian Price $1.50". On the back is rubber stamped "Wray's Music Store 311 Fort Street Winnipeg 1 Man". I also see that they were "blowing" them out at some point for only 25 cents.

I also have one of these and have been very pleased with it. I would say that the loudness is like a medium tone steel needle and as Sean says it does give a less matallic sound then a standard TT needle.

The advertising for these needles always makes me chuckle as it says it will play any type of record - well I wouldn't play an Edison DD with one of these things!

On good condition records the everplay is great, but I would never use it on a worn record as not only does the tungsten wear down quickly it also makes the record go gray very quickly!Below are some pictures of an everplay.

S-B-H

Here are some shots of the paper fliers that came with my Everplays. You'll notice the packs themselves are different too. "Regular Price $2.00" and "Special Advertising Price $1.50". I've seen at least one other variation as well. The fliers are different, one is a single page flier (first picture, showing both sides) and the other is a three page foldout "brochure". I'm always fascinated by this stuff and I've wondered why they don't turn up very often since I find them to work very well.

Sean