Are there any 78's worth collecting?

[NikkoUser]

I'm just curious. I see albums of 78's all the time and wonder if they are worth buying. The condition of them is usually real bad. The equipment they used way back when was pretty atrocious so it's no wonder.
But, there must be something in there once in a while, isn't there? Any names to look for?

[cactuscowboy]

I've got close to 7,000 78s. So yes, I do consider them worth buying!

What are your musical preferences? You'll find tons of great music on 78s, ranging from Classical, Rock, Hillbilly (Country Western), Blues, Jazz, Folk, Pop, and Childrens. I like and listen to all genres of music but have lesser interest in Classical and Pop.

Don't give up the search. Yes, many 78s are in poor condition due to improper handling or playback on old Victrolas with worn needles, but there are VG+ or NM discs to be found.

If you have a good modern turntable equipped with a MM cartridge and a diamond elliptical stylus in the 2.5 to 3.0 mil range, you can expect remarkable sound quality from many 78s, especially discs from the late 40s thru 50s.

What is your preference for genre? Narrow it down a bit and I can make some suggestions of what to look for.

[SA-708]

Here's a great article about legendary 78 collector Joe Bussard: http://www.bluesworld.com/Bussard.html

There's some very valuable Sun 78s, not by the big names, but rarer sides by less-known acts sought after by people trying to put together complete sets of Sun 78s.

[OscarEmmy]

I have quite a few big band 78's and also plenty of original Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Mills Brothers, etc. I don't play them on my Sony, because it hasn't got a 78 setting, but I have several nice all-in-one stereo systems that do a nice job, plus I have a few consoles (RCA, Columbia and Magnavox) that sound excellent playing 78's. My wife found me a terrific old Califone Continental II Model 26 VP2 for $10 at Goodwill last year. It has just been sitting in my garage...decided to dust it off for this posting - works superbly and sounds amazing (for what it is), even playing 78's. It has separate bass and treble, strobe for ALL speeds with stepless speed adjustment from 16 to 78 rpm, cork platter mat, adjustable stylus force, stereo output option, a nice 12" full range speaker, scratch filter...even a very quiet motor. It is a portable unit, with 1/4-inch jack outputs and inputs...all in all a very nice unit I reckon and a steal for $10.00

here's some pics...

[goraman]

Django Reinhardt is very rare and all origanal recordings are on some reel tapes but mostly 78s and are so rare they are unobtainum and worth big $$$$$$$$$$$$$.

[Arkay]

Wonderful article! Thanks for sharing it. I started collecting 78s as a kid, and had about 400 good ones as a teenager. They all burned when our family house burned :tears: and I never started collecting them again, but have picked up a few Chinese ones here in Hong Kong. Nothing special.

Now a collection like that Joe in the article has, well ....whew! There can't be too many like that out there!

[Fred Longworth]

A vast number of 78's contain music available nowhere else. Not every singer was a Sinatra. Another Italian fellow with a terrific voice was Perry Como, whose recording career began around 1936, thus relegating the first decade-and-a-half of his stuff to the 78 era. A lot of this never made it to LP's, let alone CD's or MP3 downloads.

But 78's often require cleanup to sound good.

Quite a number of tick/pop/noise reduction devices exist, both outboard and in your computer. These days looping 78 music through your computer can make a great many of them sound as good as LP's. Since cleanup programs are widely available and easy to use, these days most of my 78 customers use their computers to restore and enhance their disks.

Fred

[OscarEmmy]

A vast number of 78's contain music available nowhere else. Not every singer was a Sinatra. Another Italian fellow with a terrific voice was Perry Como, whose recording career began around 1936, thus relegating the first decade-and-a-half of his stuff to the 78 era.Fred

Yup...long before 'catch a falling star...' I have some early Como on 78 and he had an excellent voice before he went all gooey middle-of-the-road. I used to like his TV show (I was born in '55, so watched Como in the 60's after much of his best work was behind him). I like the early Sinatra much better, too.

[BrocLuno]

That's the main reason I bought my Audio Technica PL120 turntable. It has 78 speed and a optional 20% speed adjust so you can spin most all old records. I have a headshell with a Grado78c for it and it works nicely. I got a small pile of radio station disks with brown heavy duty sleeves that had the stations catalog system marked on them. Since then I have come across about 40 more I was interested in. All radio station singles (same deal on the sleeves). They are not pristine, but playable. They are showing up in the thrifts? So grab what you want and have at it.

[OscarEmmy]

Yeah, before they get smashed by retards who have no idea what they are handling/trashing::mad:

[Fred Longworth]

When going into a thrift store, always remember to tip the clerk with a fresh banana.

Fred

[NikkoUser]

Thanks to all those who replied. As I suspected, there are a few gems out there-very few. In the future I will look for any off brand type labels. I certainly would like to find a Robert Johnson but doubt any will show up in the North.

[Garrard201]

JAZZ & BLUES- Blue Note, King, Specialty... pickup an R&B or Jazz 78 price guide and see how many of them are worth a lot. You'll be surprised! Here in Chicago we have the amazing Jazz Record Mart with a whole wall of nice 78s. The most expensive ones are around $20, the cheapest are $1...though they also have much more valuable ones in the back.

[Garrard201]

Just to clarify-- there are many collecitble 78s in the jazz/blues/r&b genres. But pretty much ANY 78 you pick up is going to have some interesting music on it.

[Cantabury Guy]

A copy of Stormy Weather by The Five Sharpes on Jubilee #5104 78RPM would be worth in excess of $5000.

[cactuscowboy]

Thanks to all those who replied. As I suspected, there are a few gems out there-very few. In the future I will look for any off brand type labels. I certainly would like to find a Robert Johnson but doubt any will show up in the North.

About two months ago, I bought a large lot of records for $250. Of the 9,000~10,000 discs, nearly half are 78s. Approximately 3,000 of them are white label promos pressed on vinyl. Of those, nearly all are in VG+ to NM condition. I've been slowly going through hundreds of these 78s and pulling out countless gems, ranging from ancient Hillbilly, Blues, and Jazz to 1950s Doo Wop and Rock records.

Don't worry too much about finding that elusive Robert Johnson disc. It's not likely to turn up. But you should also be optimistic. It is possible to find thousands of pristine records for dirt cheap.

Spinning Ella Mae Morse, Les Paul, and Nat King Cole 78s right now. :music:

[eb2jim]

The thorn in my audio side for the past few years has been to narrow down my turntables to a decent main one that will play 78s. My recent favorites - Thorens 166 and a BIC 980 don't do that, although I am tempted one day to do the radio shack mod. I kind of am set on my Philips 202 as it is belt drive and basically a 212/312 type but without the Star Trek light buttons. I have to do some tweaking on it. I have a modest number of old 78s that I have held on to (Elvis, Muddy Waters, Doo Wop) and still like to take them out every so often. I would never pass up a cool one (cool being subjective).

I am too young to have been able to buy them new, but young enough to remember them in pretty much every old relative or neighbors house. It has surprised me lately to find odd RnB or jazz 78s not getting snapped up in the thrift shops. I sell the jazz 78s on ebay and it seems to always go to Europe. I don't pay enough attention to know what is worth a lot of $$, but my gut instinct is pretty well developed by now. Collectible 78s are something you can read up on, but jazz, blues, early rock n roll are always winners. An old timer once said derisively "I went through the 78s and it was nothin' but damn Columbia Red Labels!" So there is a bit of wisdom, and I never look at those.

[cactuscowboy]

Collectible 78s are something you can read up on, but jazz, blues, early rock n roll are always winners. An old timer once said derisively "I went through the 78s and it was nothin' but damn Columbia Red Labels!" So there is a bit of wisdom, and I never look at those.

I too have heard collectors grumbling about common red label Columbias, black label RCA Victors & Deccas, and purple Capitols. It is frustrating to dig through huge piles of scratched up Frankie Carle and Mills Brothers discs. However, if you pass over the common label stuff you'll miss a lot of good music. Gene Vincent on Capitol and Elvis Presley on RCA are just two of many that come to mind.

[DougMac]

I blame my grandfather and Dr. Demento for my collection of 78's. My parents had my grandfather's old Victrola record cabinet with about 50 78's. It served as the TT table for my dad's Garrard and later my Elac Miracord.

Since they could play 78's, I'd dig them out occasionally and listen to them. They were mostly boring to a 12 year old, but there were the occasional 20's records like "Horses" by the Seven Little Polar Bears that was a lot of fun.

When my wife and I lived in LA in the early 70's, Dr. Demento had a four hour show Sunday nights on KMET. On his non-syndicated show, he played a lot of great old 78's, some dating back to the 20's. I started looking for them, finding Helen Kane's "That's My Weakness Now" and even Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher". I began to know what to look for and read up on the different labels. I learned when Bat Wings were released and when they were superseded by Vicor Scrolls. I learned enough about groups to be able to pick out 20's hot jazz. I still look for 78's several thousand records later.

I've always collected for the music, not the value. I do know enough to grab up a copy of Blind Willie Johnson's "Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning" which I found in Savannah and bought for 50 cents.

Value wise, my biggest single find was in a small town in Arkansas. There was an antique store on the main square and I almost didn't go in because their prices of their window items were high. I did venture in and found a stack of 78's. The first few were the standard fare, Bing Crosby and other records of which I had multiple copies. About 10 records in the pile, there was a Black Swann! Everything from there down was pre-war blues, and jazz, including Louis Armstrong on OKEH, Mamie Smith, Bessie Smith, Clara Smith, Ma Rainey, Trixie Smith and Blind Lemon Jefferson!

While I tried not to hyperventilate, I asked the old gentleman behind the counter how much they wanted for the 78's. He said: "Them blue labels are $1.00. Everything else is 75 cents. I walked out with the entire stack (sans Crosby), over 50 records, all in excellent condition!

It was a once-in-a-lifetime find, one which I don't expect to ever duplicate. There's still enough good stuff to keep me searching, though.

Doug

[yohan77]

There is a show that takes place every year in New Jersey that is JUST 78s.

I love 78s. I'm 24 years old. I am easily the youngest collector at the 78 shows. I find the collecting of 78s more addicting than the collecting of LPs.

78s are much harder to find in decent shape for the following reasons:

1) 78s are singles, so they were played more often, and the "A" side can be completely wiped out and the "B" side could be mint - many 45s also suffer from this trend.
2) Even when electrical 78s were introduced, acoustic players (with a VERY heavy pickup and steel needle) were the standard for playing them... later on, electrical cartridges were employed but the heavy pickup and steel needles remained. If that's not enough, jukeboxes were the main source of hearing music in a social setting for many kids back then, which also like 45s, ruined a lot of good records.
3) They're breakable, each 78 is like a dinner plate.

They can be a bear to manage. They're heavy, big, and take up a lot of space, and thus require older/special shelving if you have a decent collection. The reward, however, is value. A lot of people here talk about their favorite tunes by Perry Cuomo or other pop artists, but their records aren't worth much... simply because of the term popular - those guys sold a LOT of records. A 78 issue is most always worth more than its 45 counterpart.

Some of my notable 78s include:
Carl Perkins - autographed (but plowed) Dixie Fried
Carl Perkins - Matchbox
Jackie Brenston - Rocket 88
there are more expensive ones in there but I can't think of them right now.

Pop isn't my bag, but I am into blues/r 'n' b, country/cajun, and jazz (including early swing). A lot of the same rules for vinyl valuation apply, original trumps the reissues, smaller label=more value, obscure hits=more value. It turns out these records, in the right rarity/condition combination, can bring in some big money. The main difference is condition, as there are qualities of the same record, moreso than vinyl.

On a good 78, the sound is immaculate, even when you use the "wrong" curve (exception of Decca, you NEED the right curve for those to sound any good). Strong sound and often clearer than LP and CD reisssues (ironically enough, because they didn't use the right curve or no curve at all, but also because of dehissing/clicking techniques that were overused. Jazz issued on Prestige/New Jazz, as well as most later Rock 'n' Roll records were RIAA.

[truetone36]

My best score of 78s was in Little Rock, AR. in '97. I stopped into this little shop and there were several boxes full of early rock and roll and r&b 78s.
Jackie Brenston, Billy Ward & the Dominoes, The Ravens, Frankie Lymon,
Fats Domino, Lloyd Price, to name just a few. Almost 200 of them. I bought the whole lot for $100!:banana::banana::banana:. I still have them and Enjoy
listening to them on a Zenith Cobra-Matic I bought at a flea market a few years ago.:music:


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