Finally got a Vintage HMV Gramophone Player for playing 78s

[hildebrand]

I only wish my apprehensions were wrong...

The punched embroidery works on the horn, and the extended cantilever holder (instead of the pipe originating from inside the sound box) and HMV sound box, and the turned wood pillars on the corner, which always go against the norms of antique..

I pray, im wrong..

We both just miles apart in Bangalore, my long postponed visit to your listening sessions, is now getting rushed up.. I would love to see this beauty!!

anyways, wou

You are welcome. I will look forward to it.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

I was searching for an HMV Gramophone player to play 78 rpms for sometime.
I was having a feeling since sometime after listening at various friends' places that the 78s are best played on gramophone players as they're meant to be played with those steel needles that "excavate" the tracks. Turntable needles can get damaged by these. Getting real mint records is rare and was asking around for a gramophone.

Well, excavate is probably right!

This is a wonderful thing to own, and the restoration will be a joy, but for practical playing of music, please continue your search for a more modern deck with 78rpm speed and a 78rpm-specific stylus.

I had a wind-up gramophone in my early childhood. It was something that came from my father's youth, and he was born in 1913. That makes for almost an entire generation of shellac records that were "meant" to be played on electric decks with electric amplification and EQ.

 

[hildebrand]

Thad, both my turntables play 78 already but this one reproduces shellac 78s best. Also the bigger needle pushes away dirt very easily. Imperfections created on tracks are traversed without problem. The same disks on TT is a different story. Sometimes needles get stuck in the crevices and even get damaged if the record is particularly damaged. A couple of disks I had given up on work fine on the gramophone.
Your father must have really enjoyed them. 78 rpm production stopped in India only in 1970.
One only has to keep buying needles which are available at some shops or new gramophone house. Ngh even gives spare original hmv soundboxes (going by shine of mine it must have been replaced at some point). Mint 78s would probably work fine on TTs but they are difficult to get (Hey even non-mints are scarce and expensive).

On a side note, abroad in 70s some vinyl 78s had been pressed - some apparently even in stereo. I bet those would play well with the TTs. TTs were made to play vinyls!

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

My involvement with 78s was back in 1950s/60s. I thought they were all shellac. At least, I never had one that was not fragile and prone to simply wearing out by being played by those needles. Even our Radiogram used needles. I'm sure it pre-dated vinyl. It must have done, as it had no facility for playing it.

Whilst most of the TTs we see were, indeed, (frustratingly, if you have 78s) made to play vinyl, not even having the 78 speed, TTs. in general were not "made for vinyl."

Believe me. I'm old. I was there :lol:

 

[hildebrand]

I believe you.
When I came to, we had a cassette player, radio and a B&W TV.
There were some EPs lying around but no player

I hope one day to come across the rare vinyl 78s too. I also thought they were all shellac till I checked around a bit. These seem to have been just a fad though, hence difficult to get.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Born 1952... I do pre-date cassettes, but not vinyl, except it didn't enter my family home until I got my own more-modern record player in about '67 or '68. Until then, I lived with my parent's 78s. Sadly, they were not enough into music to much care if the equipment was working or not, which it often wasn't. Sometimes I would fall back on the wind-up

My Aunt had a stereo radiogram, with vinyl stereo LPs of stuff like Rogers & Hammerstein Hollywood musicals. But she was rich. :lol:

 

[hildebrand]

and so are you now

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

hee hee, I have better hifi, but, allowing for inflation, I am nowhere near as wealthy.

Still, you can't buy...

Oh, wait! There's awful lot it will buy!

 

[hildebrand]

Yes an awful lot