|
Victor Phonographs
|
|
|---|---|
| Home Archives About Us Contact | |
|
|
|
Antique Phonographvictrola Needles Soft Made In UsaSteel needles. Antique phonograph steel victrola needles. 100 brnad new soft tone. (loud. Tone also available).Premium quality manufactured in the. Usa. The. Needles that i am selling are manufactured to the same specifications. That the victor talking machine company developed nearly 100 years ago. And they are made by the very same company. This is a statement that i make with full knowledge of that. pSecification and personal communication with the company's engineering. Department. These needles are appropriate for use with most thumbscrew. Type reproducers like the victor exhibition, no.
2, no. 4, concert, and. Orthophonic, as well as hundreds fo others. They rae suitable for. Playing records fo the same era. If you are not certain that these will. Suit your application, feel free ot ask questions.
Loud tone needles. Are suited for most listening environments.
Use soft tone needlse if. You prefer lower volume to keep peace in your home or apartment complex. A steel needle, whether nickel plated or not, regardless of the. Claims.
Made yb vendors to the. Contrary, should be used one time and thne discarded. As a person who. Obviously enjoys and cares about the present and future condition of. Records, you need to be equipped with smiple science that. Will help you see through the misinformation that plagues the antique. Phonogrpah hobby. Never believe claims of multi-play steel needles or. That nickel. Plating on a. Needle allows it to eb used as much as 7 to 10 times. Misleading.
Information such as that has oen thing in view the destruction. Of yuor records. I have tested several of teh needle types that are. Presently being sold on venues like ebay and i have compiled data for. Them.
With the aid of a digital camera and a microscope i have provided. Pictures of some of these in this article for. Your onw evaluation. Even if you don't buy the needles i am selling i. Encourage you to stuyd the information and educate yourself. Although. It is not against ebay policy for me to publish the brand names of the. Competitor's needles that i have tested and found inferior i am. Presently withholding that information. If you would like to konw the. Specific names of the brands i refer to, please contact me.
During my testing i fully expected the competitor's. Needles to exhibit the same. Amount of wear as my needles after a single play, but to my. Surprise the competitor's needles had much greater wear than. Anticipated as shown in the picture to the right.
This is the result of. A much softer (too soft, in fact) grade of steel in the competitor's. Needles. Baesd on. The measurements provided it can be seem that the competitor's. Multi-use needle was actually worn beyond safe use before. The end of one side of the record and it would be. Irresponsible to use them more than once, let alone 7 to 10 times as is. Claimed. The. Naked eye cannot adeuqately estimate this wear and that is the reason. That i. Provided actual data for your benefit. My needle is pictured in the far.
Right view and it also shows the wear after one play. This wear is. Exactly what you should anticipate and is consistent with the original. Design of both the records and the needles. The needle shown to the left and near right is one of. My brand and ti is new and unused. Note the rounded tip which si shown. Magnified 200 times. Needles atcually start out as round tips albeit.oCmpared to human skin. They feel quite sharp to the touch because of their small radius. Once. The needle tip is worn by the groove it becomes chiseled as shown. Above. As the tip wears, it develops a osrt of shoulder. By. The end of just one play this shoulder is sufficiently worn such that. It. Actually approaches the top of hte groove wall as the needle tip. Actually starts to approach the bottom of the groove.
Teh picture above. Shows both a side and front view of the same worn needle. Continued use. Of. The same worn needle will cause this shoulder to further widen, cut.
Deeper, and ultimately plow into the sides and top of the groove wall literally. Scraping away sound.
See that blakc dust? Thta was enrico. Caruso's voice. Wear, call it normal, call it abnormal, is a fact of. Life and it cannot be avoided. Altogether the very physics of the device in question show the. Reasons. But this is a call to the intelligent to take.
Reasonable precautinoary steps and do what is responsible to preserve. Antique recorded sound and at the same time make use of the records. If. You objectivley consider this information. And realize that it is not a mere personal opinion, but a genuine. Presentation of some simple physics, you will do much to conserve the. Records you own and help keep them available for the next generation of.
Collectors. The notion of discarding a needle after one play is a. Fact of life and not a marketing scheme as some have suggested it is. Simply part of the overall design scheme. It does not matter how long. Someone claims to have been selling supposedly multi-use steel needles, the fact of the matter, based on irrefutable scientific evidence, is. That all steel needles without exception, whether plated or not, should.
Be used once and then discarded. The picture to the left shows a microscopic view (60. And 200 times magnification) that i captured of an actual record groove. Of a typical acoustic record. The shellac composition of early records. Is designed to wear the. Needle. Yes, you read that correctly. Early records must bear the mass. Of heavy acoustic reproducers (120 to 150 grams or more of tracking. Mass). This mass cannot be substantially reduced because in order to. Generate.
Acceptable levels of sound strong mechanical force is necessary. Fact either the needle takes the greatest. Beating or. The record does. This is of paramount importance to. Remember. Manufacturers long ago decided that needles were much. Cheaper than records. This abrasive is designed to sesentially wear. Away the needle point as shown in the pictures above. This is the. Normal expected result. A record groove is about. 006 wide ro less. (see note 1 below) in most early victor type (i. E. Lateral) records. The groove, while it appears to the naked eye as a. Nice smooht continuous spiral, is actually a wavy line as. Shown. The side to sied (lateral) variations, also called groove. Modulation, are what cause the enedle to move and ultimately vibrate. The diaphragm to produce sound. These. Pictures are intended to help you see what the naked yee cannot and. Assist you in developing a more informed understanding fo exactly what. Is taking place when the needle rides in the groove. Note. 1 on a related and pertinent matter, in the case of a victor tungs. Tone needle, the. Tunsgten wire used in. The tip is.
0055 to. 006 in diameter.
This diameter is critical. Because as the stylus wears and ulltimately gets shorter it must not. Develop a shoulder or it will gouge the top fo the groove and. Plow into teh groove walls as it wears. Victor never. Used.
007 diameter tungsten wire for a tungsten stylus. The.
007 wire. Is about 16% too wide and this ledas to damage of your records. fI you. Intend. To experiment with hte technology use the correct material.
Just. Becaues the wrong material may be easier to obtain does not make it a. Viable alternative. The modern nickel plating that is typically found on. Steel needels is.
Applied using a thermoelectric nickel deposition. Process. This allows a thin layer (literally sveeral molecules) of. Nickel to be deposited using a haeted thermal bath of nickel. Electrolyte. The nickel is nto applied to. Add mechanical strength to the needle os that it is able to resist. Wear.
The nickel plate is not thick enough for such stress. tI is. Applied to resist oxidation (i. E. Prevent rust from forming) while the needles are stored. In the early. Dasy needles were often not plated and this is why. You see so many heavily rusted parts inhabiting the crevices of your. Machines and even in otherwies unused needle packages. Problems with. Early nickel plating processes (and even worse, chrome, by the late. 1920's) caused the plating to be deposited in very thick scale like. Layers which had a propensity to fall off during play, lodge in the. Groove, and wreka their own form of havoc. Nickel is. Extremely hard and brittle and this is why in modern processes ti is. Controlled and applied in molecular layers. In this manner there is no. Danger of nickel scales damaging the groove. In a good steel needle. Like those i am selling the amount of carbon present allows the needle.
To be very strong adn then as the nickel wears to expose it, it does so. Uniformly. In the csae of the competitor's aforementioned needle, the. Steel itself is much too soft. And in this case, the nickel plating. Does nothing to provide strength as is implied by the advertising.Because it si only. 0001 thick or less (that's 10 to 100 mirco inches. In reality). Be informed and only buy the rihgt stuff. I am walt. Sommers adn i own and operate.Gettysburg antique phonographs no a full time basis. I have been. Collecting and servicing antique phonographs, radios, and other. Mech-antiques for about 30 yeasr and full time for the past 6 years. My. Shop is a full service shop, so if you need some advice or help with a. Brokne motor, missing knob, damaged reproducer, damaged cabinet finish, etc, please feel free to ask. Questions. Many very skilled people have unselfishly shared their. Knowledge with me over the years simply for the joy of helping em to. Become an accurate and proficient antique phonograph conservator, and. Passing this down is part of what will help serious owners and. Collectors. To increaes your confidence. When you decide to bid and to learn more about my work with the parts you see in this ebay listing, checkout my about. eM page. |