Adventures in 78 restoration: Part One

Are you interested in learning how to restore your 78s? Or how to improve the job you're doing? Really? Are you nuts?

Please. 78s are fragile, noisy, low-tech, a pain to store and transport, and their grooves are often home to grime, mildew, and general yuck. (General Yuk--wasn't that a musical?) Meanwhile, we've got websites telling us not to so much as touch the things with water. Turn back. I'm begging you. As a blogger. As a friend.

You can't, can you? Hee, hee, hee. I didn't think so. So, to the basics:

Basics: Turntable with 78 speed; 78 stylus; ability to switch from stereo to mono; a 78 (vice RIAA) curve; an equalizer; and software featuring filters for crackle, hiss, clicks, and the like.

Here's a good introduction to cartridge and stylus issues: Information About Turntables and Needles. Basically, 78 grooves are a lot wider than LP grooves. That's why using the wrong needle can produce very wrong results.

And here's a great place to buy the things you need: Esotericsound.com. This page also contains good stylus-size info to go with the good info cited above. Never let it be said that I failed to link to good info.

It's not too late to turn back. Think about it. No, really.

"So, Lee, what is YOUR set-up?" Glad you asked. It's pretty basic, but I think it does the job. I have a Rek-o-Kut Audiophile Archival Preamp ($80 or so), which is exactly like the expensive units sold by the same company, only without all the neat features. Basically, it gives the user the RIAA curve (for LPs and 45s) and a single 78 response curve. I'm not capable of explaining response curves. I know what they are, but I lack the technical language to prove that I know what they are. You'll have to trust me. 78s sound a LOT better with a 78 response curve--that's all we need to know.

The fancier versions of my preamp offer a variety of response curves. Fancier, of course, means more expensive. If you're limited, as I am, to a single 78 curve, then you'll want an equalizer with a lot of frequency bands--say, 31. My Stageworks E231X has that many, and it wasn't terribly expensive. It allows me to tweak the response curve as my ears hear fit. And I have no idea what "hear fit" means.

Having a mono signal is very important, since stereo reproduction of a 78 includes lots of rumble, swish, and hiss. Totally unacceptable. And so I have a thrift-store-bought vintage Sony amplifier with a stereo-to-mono switch. You can also go the double-Y-connection route to reduce the signal to mono when it's traveling from your turntable to your amp or preamp. I've been told that wiring the phono cartridge for mono is the best way to go, but I get all kinds of hum when I do that.

Cartridge: Stanton 680 Hi-Fi. 78 needle: D6827.

Turntable: Dual 1229, three speeds (33, 45, 78).

Add a pair of Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphones, and you have my set-up. Now, give it back. It's not nice to walk off with someone's stereo.

Coming up: Part 2 (Software).


Lee

Coming up soon!!

With your host, me.

Lee

Monday Shellac Attack!!!

I grabbed the nearest label images available to make the collage above--none of these sides show up in the list. Ah, but what sides do show up in the list! Fascinating, amazing, charming sides. From rube quartettes to 1926 zither playing--we've got sounds to get your player saying "Huh? What the heck is this?"

1911's Life Preserver is a nice, Liberty Bell-ish march in 6/8, and the two 1915 Peerless Quartette sides are, to lovers of vintage close harmony, what the Derranged Elevator Mechanics are to devotees of post-shipping-crate grunge. And who isn't?

The vintage easy listening (or mood, light orchestral, semi-Classical) in the list is highly interesting stuff--save for the Prince's Orch. side Dawn of Hope, it's light concert stuff you'd have heard on the radio in the 1920s. Dig the vocal chorus that shows up on Monastery Garden--what's up with that? No sooner do I identify the concert orchestra/vocal chorus combination as an important clue in the evolution of easy/mood/semi-Class, this shows up. The conductor, Hungarian-born Erno Rapee, was a big name in silent film music.

Jean de Cassella's Dawn of Hope, featured here in a 1916 recording, is the same kind of concert-orchestra mood music, only earlier. Ben Selvin's Hi-Ho The Merrio is not.

I went to town restoring the two Victor Salon Orchestra sides, Allah's Holiday and Neapolitan Nights (the second featuring some zither passages!), and I think the effort was worth it. Salon/mood/concert band... by any name, it sounds a great deal alike. Which, when the stuff sounds this good, is perfectly fine. I have no idea what I just typed. To the music, all of it ripped from my 78 collection and restored by me:

Monday Shellac Attack!


PLAYLIST

THE RUBE QUARTETTE--Peerless Quartette, 1915.
SAILOR SONG--Peerless Q., 1915.
IN A MONASTERY GARDEN--Capitol Grand Orch., Emo Rapee, c., 1922.
CAVALLERIO RUSITCANA--INTERMEZZO--Same, 1922.
ST. PAUL'S SUITE--Part 3--INTERMEZZO (Holst)--Jacques String O., 1938.
NEAPOLITAN NIGHTS--Victor Salon O., Nat Shilkret, 1926.
DAWN OF HOPE--Prince's Orch., 1916.
ALLAH'S HOLIDAY--Victor Salon O., Nat Shilkret, 1926.
HI-HO THE MERRIO--The Knickerbockers (Ben Selvin), vocal: Arthur Fields, 1926.
LIFE PRESERVER--TWO STEP--Victor Dance Orch., 1911.


Lee

Oh, boy! The Oscar results are in!! Woo hoo!! The winners, the losers, the almost-winners, the fashion highlights & lowlights, the speeches, the...

...jokes, the cliches, the applause, the glamor, the glitter, the awe, the audacity, the hair-dos, the outfits, the jewelry, the lights, the commercials, the show-biz references, the podium, the mic, the envelope, the statuettes, the drum rolls, the high heels, the big smiles, the looks of anticipation, the class, the high-browness, the pizazz, the razzmatazz, the elegance, the awkward moments, the ad-libs, the walking up the steps, the awesomeness, the sheer spectacle--the coma-inducing, heart-racing, super-duper wonderfulness that IS the Oscars!!!! WOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!


Lee