Classic Hifi Care

At the boatyard I have an old boombox, mostly for the radio while getting the old vessel ready for her 57th season in my care. But today I brought along some cassette tapes. Years back, an old family friend had given me the innards of her family's old Edison disc phonograph, and a big stack of the thick, 80 rpm vertical-cut records. I recorded all the discs onto some cassettes for her, and after she died I inherited those. It's an interesting and characteristic collection of 1910s-'20s popular music. There are the religious songs, mostly concerned with sorrow and woes and getting over it all in heaven. There are some vaudeville acts,comic routines. And then there are the dance bands. Those are interesting because they are what R. Crumb discovered on 78s. The musicians are pretty good and the bands are lively and jazzy. The singers tend to conform to the accepted style of male vocalizing of the time--smooth and bland and mannered. But the bands and some of the instrumental soloists are much better. One disc is a kazoo band (!!). There are some ethnic acts that would not be acceptable today.

I made the transfers by putting the microphone in the horn of the player and stuffing rags around it. The results wire pretty good.

The interesting R. Crumb interview was on American Routes last week and is not yet up for online streaming. He is a formidable 78 collector. He talked about how his parents listened to musicians like Vaughn Monroe and he found it boring. Then he discovered old 78s of 20s and 30s music that was far better but by then forgotten. My taste aligns with his pretty closely.

And it's fun imagining all those musicians grouped around a big recording horn and trying for the one perfect take.

Chris Campbell

I have my Uncle Louie's upright Edison from around 1919. Of the 40 or so records, over 30 lost their labels.

I know I have a copy of Barney Google and Yes, we have no bananas but most I can't recognize. And some have huge chips in them.

It was my first oompah...

Edison Diamond Discs have a much more natural sound than acoustically recorded Victor / Columbia / Brunswick records. You can especially notice the difference on the sound of the piano.

"Yes we have no bananas" is one of mine, too, and it has a wonderful marimba player on it. Another has a soprano with accompaniment and the clarinet must have been closest to the horn because you get a very clear listen to the clarinet obbligato. And yes, the recording is remarkably natural for that mid-frequency instrument.

I spent the morning falling down the Google rabbit hole about Edison recordings & artists.

Chris Campbell

I picked a few up for a buck a piece at the local thrift market, they had double sided tape on them apparently used as decoration stuck on a wall ... once I got the goo off they played as expected lots of background noise from bad steel needles ...but they are cool

Edison discs are vertical-cut (up and down, not lateral like 78s). The used jeweled styli, not steel needles. Playing them on a 78 player will do damage. You can only play them on an Edison player, with a lead screw to move the arm along and a reproducer that responds to vertical modulation.

Chris Campbell

I had a number of diamond disks way back when. I remember that the disks also had the label info impressed into the centers beneath the labels (or lack thereof).

Some had the embossed labels and others had paper. The paper ones have a strobe-disc pattern printed on the periphery of the label. I'm pretty sure they were all recorded at 80 rpm, unlike "78s" that were often recorded at non-standard speeds.

Chris Campbell

TC Chris wrote: ↑Sun Apr 28, 2024 11:12 pm Edison discs are vertical-cut (up and down, not lateral like 78s). The used jeweled styli, not steel needles. Playing them on a 78 player will do damage. You can only play them on an Edison player, with a lead screw to move the arm along and a reproducer that responds to vertical modulation.

Chris Campbell

You can play Diamond Discs with a stereo cartridge by wiring it for vertical modulation.
Attach R+ to L+, and take the mono signal off the two negative terminals. I've get the best sound using a 1 mil conical stylus.