Help: restoring old 78's

Subject: restoring old 78's
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Feb 01 - 08:01 AM

I have inherited a few boxes of old 78's. They are quite dusty from 50 odd years of storage in a dingy basement. Does anyone have any tips for cleaning and proper storage of these gems from the past? Any help would be appreciated. B.B.

Subject: RE: Help: restoring old 78's
From: Frank Maher
Date: 10 Feb 01 - 08:26 AM

You'll find someInfo Here!!!! http://www.nipperhead.com/faq.htm

Subject: RE: Help: restoring old 78's
From: MARINER
Date: 10 Feb 01 - 11:14 AM

Be careful what you use. If you try Isopropyl Alcohol you'll find it works well, but I've found that putting too much on the disc can remove the sheen from the shellac.It's best to rub some onto the record with a lint free cloth. It lifts a lot of the dirt from the grooves. Wipe off and buff lightly with a similar cloth. Good Luck, Mariner

Subject: RE: Help: restoring old 78's
From: Lox
Date: 10 Feb 01 - 11:19 AM

Don't put them in plastic crates and leave them in the backyard for months only to find a year later that they are drowning in a foot of stagnant water and indeed, that somebody has confused half of them with plates from a greek restaurant whilst drunk............

That's definately what not to do!

lox

Subject: RE: Help: restoring old 78's
From: Lyrical Lady
Date: 10 Feb 01 - 06:39 PM

I have several boxes of 78's that will be looking for a new home fairly soon. If anyone know's what I might do with them, please pm me. I'm moving and I don't want to move them yet once again! Lyrical Lady

Subject: RE: Help: restoring old 78's
From: bet
Date: 11 Feb 01 - 11:50 AM

Thanks for the info on cleaning. I to have several boxes and am going to restore and record them for the family. Just haven't got started yet. Maybe this is the push I need. bet

Subject: RE: Help: restoring old 78's
From: Spud Murphy
Date: 11 Feb 01 - 02:49 PM

Back in the early thirties KFBK radio in Sacramento received daily shipments of 78 RPM records for promotional use. Mel Venter, who was in charge of such things at the station, used to give tons(?) of them away to anybody who would take them, just to get them out of his way. My dad ("Yankee Mac And The Sierra Ranch Hands" brought his share home and stored them in the feed storage room attached to our chicken house. (We couldn't even afford a wind-up Victrola at the time.) My mom would take them and put them in the oven over a heavy duty clay flower pot and when they got hot enough they just sorta melted down to conform to the flower pot shape. Spindle hole and all.

What she didn't recycle in that way, I took care of later when I got old enough to use my brother's four-ten shotgun. (And the depression got over enough so I could buy a few shells.)

I guess today we have different values.

Subject: RE: Help: restoring old 78's
From: GUEST,CraigS
Date: 11 Feb 01 - 08:36 PM

Cleaning 78s with isopropyl alcohol, ethanol, methanol ("wood alcohol") is a VERY BAD idea. The shellac dissolves in the alcohol - that's why the "sheen goes off" if you use too much. The shellac also dissolves in alkali, so alkaline cleaning agents are also out of the question. Generally, the best thing is to leave them alone unless they are filthy or mouldy - if they are, find a shower tile cleaner that says it only contains "neutral" or "non-ionic" cleaning agents, and rinse it off using pure water like you can buy for car batteries. Let the water drain off in a plate rack, and don't play them for a couple of days after washing, as the shellac may still be softened slightly.If you use alcohol you might as well give them to Spud Murphy's mother for the flowerpot treatment.

Subject: RE: Help: restoring old 78's
From: Lyrical Lady
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 01:16 AM

HA! The flower pot treatment!...I'm going to try it! I have lots of duplicates so it won't be a great sacrifice. Those flowery old tunes pushing up daisies...what a novel idea! LL

Subject: RE: Help: restoring old 78's
From: Spud Murphy
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 02:11 AM

LLady: Just be careful! Those things are flamable if you get them hot enough and this isn't 1930. Might check with the Fire Department beforehand.

Spud

Subject: RE: Help: restoring old 78's
From: English Jon
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 05:01 AM

Warm water, drop of fairy liquid. Wipe Carefuly. Less is more here. If you have access to audio restoration software, so much the better, otherwise try to get them recorded onto DAT (best), Minidisc (Pretty Good) or The Best Tape player you can find. Is this rare material, or do you just want to play it? Obviously audio restoration isn't tuppence a disc, and it could be that the material is available on CD, worth checking before spending a lot of money...

Have fun... Jon

Subject: RE: Help: restoring old 78's
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 06:13 AM

Aagh! Turning 78s into flower pots is like burning books!! Pleeease don't!!!

Well, if you do, don't tell me about it! I've got about 600 and I'm in the process of nmoving them a few at a time from my old house to my new house (that's a story for another time). Lyrical Lady, I'll get shot (metaphorically!) for asking this, but are you over here in the UK, or somewhere else? It's not too likely that I'd be able to take them off your hands at all, but it's worth considering. What sort of music are they?

Steve

Subject: RE: Help: restoring old 78's
From: menzze
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 06:43 AM

I still have lots of them from my dad and had the same problem as you. The best results I got with handwarm water, if you have take chemically clean water, mixed with a bit of neutral washing liquid. Don't get the water too hot nor take any alcool or things like nitro or aceton or things like that.That will destroy the shellac. Store them upright, dry and cool, wrapped in clean acidfree paper and they will last a real long time menzze

Subject: RE: Help: restoring old 78's
From: Gervase
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 07:03 AM

I've tried the detergent (use very sparingly) in luke-warm water and it works well, getting rid of all sorts of gunge.
Use a soft brush (like a very soft toothbrush or nailbrush) to go round the grooves, then flush the record thoroughly under running water (it helps if you've got soft water).
Dry the records flat with towelling above and below, and then - with your best and sharpest needle in the player - transfer them immediately to MiniDisc or CD.

PS: My parents' state-of-the art radiogram had settings for 78, 45 and 33rpm, but also for 16 rpm (which made 78s sound veeeeery straaaange indeeed). Was that used for voice recordings or what?

Subject: RE: Help: restoring old 78's
From: John Hindsill
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 08:58 AM

16 RPM records were indeed used for voice recordings, primarily 'talking books' for the blind. Please, no one chastise me for using that term. When those recordings were made, we did not have politically correct euphemisms for differently abled persons.

Subject: RE: Help: restoring old 78's
From: bet
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 11:08 AM

Just remembered something abaout warpped records. I heard that if you take two pieces of window glass and put the record between them then lay them on the floor in the sun that they will heat up and straighten out. I've not tried it but it sounds like it might work. bet

Subject: RE: Help: restoring old 78's
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 12 Feb 01 - 11:56 AM

Gervase, I take it you mean a steel needle! If you use an lp stylus on a "modern" record player, you'll get plenty of hiss but not enough music, since the tip of the stylus sits in the bottom of the groove; a full-size 78 stylus will sit on the sides of the groove, as Nature intended. If you use a steel needle, let it run in the centre circle first for a few seconds to shape itself to the groove; this saves wear on the first few grooves. You'll get a different tone from a modern amp too, as there's a Dolby-like compensation in the elctronics to match the "tweaked" signal on the 45 or 33 disc.

Steve

Subject: RE: Help: restoring old 78's
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 13 Feb 01 - 03:36 AM

There are two or three links in this thread to 78/gramophone sites, if you scroll down far enough.
Steve