All about 78's....Tunes, Turntables, Technology

jeffjoseph1

Tube Jockey
Per a suggestion from other members i am starting a 78 thread for all aspects of this slice of turntableness.

I'll start: Where do you get your records, and what is some the best finds (and prices) you have encountered?

Also, talk about your equipment, too......
 
My 78 system consists of a Dual 1009 turntable with an N91ed cart with a 78 stylus, a Pilot AA-903 mono amp and an Aristocrat cabinet with an EV 12TRXB.

I pick up records at g-sales and thrift stores. I look for country, jazz, crooners... One of my favorites is a three record album of Fats Waller tunes. I have some nice Ink Spots too.
 
Last edited:
... One of my favorites is a three record album of Fats Waller tunes. I have some nice Ink Spots too.

I just picked up a Fats Waller 4 disc "smartset" at the local thrift shop for $5.

I have a homemade turntable, platter, motor and control salvaged from Mitsubishi linear tracking table, homemade tone arm with a LP gear 78 cart. I am using a JEC 753LC preamp (RIAA), but would like to make one with changeable equalization curves.
 
My amp has five EQ settings as well as variable cartridge loading and that makes a difference.
 
Last edited:
I have a Dual 1019 with a Shure M78S. Currently don't have a correct preamp so I think I'm not getting the right sound out of my 78s. But just acquired a little mono Newcomb D10 amp with a great selection of equalization curves for 78s. Unfortunately I just let go of an orphan Aristocrat last spring, it would have been a great match.

I get records at garage sales and antique stores, but I have so many piled up to play that I've cut back on purchasing. I have plenty of big band stuff, other jazz and some oddballs, but of course if I came across some old blues records I'd buy them in a heartbeat. Just don't see them around here.

EDIT: One of my favorites is a pristine album of Dinah Shore and the Chamber Music Society

...of Lower Basin Street! Cracks me up.
 
Yeah, we all fantasize about finding some dusty box of mint Black Patti's in someone's basement, but it hasn't happened to me either. :D I don't even find much popular stuff in that genre. It was not that popular in the first place, and a lot of those records got played to death because people didn't have a lot of dough.
 
I have wonder if those records were more regionally distributed and are more plentiful in some parts of the country than in others.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, there is that. I find a lot of Bing Crosby around here, and other stuff you might call white folk's music. Bluegrass, rather than blues, for example.
 
Just getting started

I have just recently taken an interest in 78. I have a lot of "re-issues" (Robert Johnson, Anthology of American Folk etc) but no 78s yet.
A few weeks ago I picked up a Duel 1014 with a bunch of other stuff that I had planned to sell but decided to set it up for 78s exclusively. It's nothing special but it will get me started. It has a Pickering P/ATE cartridge and I just ordered a Pickering 604-D3 stylus for it. It will be hooked up to the Phone 2 of my Sansui 1000a. I haven't found any 78s that seemed interesting to me now that I'm looking for them but I'm excited to give it a go.
I'm in the middle of a book I heard about on NPR called "Not for Sale at Any Price" and it kind of peeked my interest.
 
I'm just getting into 78s and have a small collection from antique stores and eBay. My player is an old console with a conversion to a Shure M44-7 and ART DJ phono pre. I plan to switch to a 1956 console with multiple EQ settings in the preamp.
 
OK, I'll play. I've had 78s ever since I discovered my granddad's collection when I was a little boy. I've always had access to a 78 player, starting with my dad's Garrard. I then went to an Elac Miracord 40h. From there I went to a Dual 1228. Now I'm using a Technics SP-15 with various 78 carts from Grado, Shure, AT and Stanton.

I haunt thrifts, garage sales and antique stores. I visited a thrift two weeks ago and picked up "The Song of the Woodpecker" on the Blue label, Debbie Reynolds and Carlton Carpenter singing "Aba Daba Honeymoon" (my third copy of this record, I also have the original from the late teens), "Song of the Sewer" by Art Carney, "Tutti Frutti" by Pat Boone (!) and the prize from the group, "Sixty Minute Man" by the Dominoes on a gold Federal label.

I don't have a Black Patti, but I do have a Black Swan. It was in a group of my biggest 78 find so far. I was in a small town in Arkansas in a downtown antique store. I saw a stack of 78s on a table. The first five or so was the typical Bing Crosby, etc. I then started running into Paramount labels, Columbia Flags, and Okeh, including Okeh Electric. There were songs from Ida Cox, Mamie Smith (Crazy Blues), Louis Armstrong and the Hot Five, Bessie Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson and others. They were all in great shape, E to EE.

I casually asked the old gentleman behind the counter how much he wanted for them. He said: "Them blue labels are $1.00, the rest are 75 cents. I walked out with over 50 pre-war blues and jazz records!
 
Wow, what a haul. I've found some Louis Armstrong, I think I have Fats Waller too. It would be great to find something like Bessie Smith or Blind Lemon.

I have a couple of really old WWI era songs. Amazing we can still listen to these records. Makes you wonder who bought them and listened to them way back then.
 
I have a couple of really old WWI era songs. Amazing we can still listen to these records. Makes you wonder who bought them and listened to them way back then.
There's a lot of great music from back then. Not enough people have heard it and too often what people hear are worn out copies played on bad equipment.

Thank goodness for digital and modern turntables. We can now hear the music much clearer than it was heard back when it was released. There are also folks like Archeophone Records and even Columbia who are doing wonderful restorations.

I knew Louis Armstrong from "Hello Dolly" and his appearances on Ed Sullivan. My dad was a big fan. Louis was still doing good music, but his early stuff was in a different league. I'm glad to have both original 78s and CDs with excellent restorations.
 
Use both a Dual 1019 and Miracord 50H. For the Dual I use an aftermarket stylus designed by Esoteric Sounds for the Shure M44 cart. 3.0 mil and tracks at 2-7g. For the 50H I use an original Elac stylus designed for the STS444 cart that I have on it. I also use a Rek-O-Kut Re-Equalizer for the various curves. Have roughly 300 78's. I typically buy from sellers around the country that I know. R'n'B, jazz, hillbilly.
 
I've been given all of my 78s. The best is probably a 4 disc collection entitled Benny Goodman's Boys. Its a set of early recordings of Benny Goodman and some other greats, recorded in 1928 in Chicago. Its in absolutely fantastic shape too. There is also a rather beat record of some polka performed on a Hammond Novachord. Its cheesy, but Novachord recordings are sort of uncommon, and I happen to think its an amazing sounding machine and a cool piece of electronic music history.

Player is a Garrard RC88/4 with a GE VR-II. I don't have anything special for a preamp. Right now its wired to a Radio Systems RIAA pre, but only because thats what I'm using out in the workshop currently. If its not plugged into that, its connected to whatever phono input I'm using at the moment via a simple Y cable. The Garrard is mono output.
 
I've yet to pick up a 78 player, but I've got several 78s. Mostly waltzes and flapper stuff from the mid to late 20s and early 30s. All of it was given to me, as I live in a small town and everybody knows I collect albums. I'm still deciding which turntable to pick up to enjoy them.
 
I've yet to pick up a 78 player, but I've got several 78s. Mostly waltzes and flapper stuff from the mid to late 20s and early 30s. All of it was given to me, as I live in a small town and everybody knows I collect albums. I'm still deciding which turntable to pick up to enjoy them.
Duals are good choices but can be fussy. The Technics SP-15 is terrific, but they are getting harder to find. There's also a new Stanton that will play 78's that may not be 1200 quality but would be fine for 78's. Of course, you could get a 1200 and get it modified.
 
Back
Top Bottom