We have a collection of old 78 / Victrola style records. About 90 of them from the '20s / '30s, that we inherited. They are for the most part americana, classical, operatic. This site: 78rpm.com is an auction site for just such things, and they reviewed the entirety of the catalog and said there’s nothing of value. I’m glad to donate them or give them away if someone is interested and / or has a device to play them; would hate to just chuck them in the trash. Any ideas or suggestions?
I am in the unfortunate position of having media on 78 RPM disks that I want to digitize, but I’m not sure I have hardware to play it. My sticking point is the fact that a 78 RPM disk needs a different turntable cartridge than what you would use for 33s or 45s, and I am having trouble reliably finding a 78 RPM cartridge.
Huh. Record players when I was a kid had three speeds (33, 45, 78) which was, of course, a source of endless fun making chipmunk songs. It was all the same needle. Was that perhaps bad for the 78s we occasionally played, which really needed a different cartridge?
The record players I had as a kid had a two-sided “cartridge” with distinct styli for 78s and non-78s. So it’s a known consideration, for reasons I don’t specifically understand. (Other than the mechanical differences between the groove design of the two systems.)
What is the difference between LP and 78 needles?
The difference is size. the 78 stylus is 4 times larger than the LP stylus. This is because the groove dimensions of the 78 disc are larger. if you place a LP stylus into a 78 groove, the needle will be resting on the bottom of the groove instead of tracing the groove wall.
I posted a question here several years ago asking how I could digitize a bunch of my dad’s old Hank Williams 78s, and most of the responses I got were along the lines of “why not just buy them on CD? They’re going to sound a lot better anyway.” Of course, if the music on the 78s is no longer available anywhere, that’s no help.
I inherited a collection of 78s and my research told me that it depends on the artists. You don’t even need to look at too many of them, but if they include Guy Lombardo-type artists, then might as well throw them away. Those records aren’t rare because people took care of them. What are valuable are the “race records”. Stuff like blues and jazz were played and enjoyed so they didn’t really last and are more rare. If you have those, then you have a good collection.
Check out LPGear.com. They have cartridges and styli available specifically for 78rpm discs.
I collected 78s in the 1970s. I’d find them at flea markets for 25 or 50 cents and buy discs that I recognized or thought would be interesting. I have dozens of them and have no idea what to do with them. As has been mentioned, nobody wants them.
I have a fair amount of knowledge about this. I spent 15 years remastering 78s from my collection and making them available on a web site. Some of my work is still available on YouTube.
The first thing I recommend is seeing whether commercially remastered versions of your records are available, as downloads, or CDs, or streaming media. If so, they’ll probably sound better than anything you could do yourself. Whoever did the work probably started with a cleaner copy of the record, and had better equipment and more knowledge and expertise than you. A surprising amount of 78 RPM era recordings are available this way.
Getting a decent transfer of a 78 is more complicated than you might expect. First, most 78s were not equalized the same way as LPs and 45s. Most 78s played with RIAA equalization will sound dull and muddy. There wasn’t one equalization curve - every record company did it differently, and what each company did changed over time. Recordings before 1925 were done using a mechanical process that had no equalization at all, and getting the best sound from these can be tricky.
Also, the standard 3.0 mil 78 RPM stylus is usually not the best size for a clean playback. That’s the size that was standard during the 78 era, so most of the groove wear was done by that size styli. A larger or smaller stylus often gives better sound because it avoids the wear. And smaller styli (say 2.0 or 2.5 mil) often works better if it’s truncated, so it won’t reach the bottom of the groove.
A third problem is that many 78 RPM records were not really recorded at that speed. Many Victors were recorded closer to 76.5 RPM. Deccas were often recorded as speeds as high as 81.3 RPM. If tempo and pitch are important to you, you need a turntable where the speed can be raised or lowered by several percent. Also, you need to be able to tune the playback to find the right speed. You can do this by ear, or by measuring the pitches. It helps to know what key the music is in.
There’s quite a large market for these and depending on the disks/artists/condition people could pay a considerable amount. The problem is, unless you’re in a largely populated area or get lucky, collectors can be scarce. Therefore the problem becomes shipping. They’re heavy and can be expensive to ship, making it hardly worth the bother. As others have mentioned, list them locally on a free site and see what happens. Or do a search (Google or whatever) and you’ll come up with enthusiasts and possibly even current prices for some of your collection. If you can’t be bothered, your library may take them off your hands.
If you do decide to dump them, just make sure all of the recordings are somewhere on YouTube already. They probably are since an expert has already said they have no value. The sounds matter; not the shellack.