Yes but, the problem with 78s was that they were by nature abrasive. Thus
they used steel needles which only wore out, but also did damage the grooves
as they did so due to the poor compliance in an acoustic diagram and horn
system. You are moving a lot of air with a small area. It was only with the
advent of electronic amplification that you could allow the compliance to
drop low enough to let you use softer plastics to made the record. Some very
late 78s, notably those by The Beatles issued in India were made of
something like Vinyl.
Brian

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On Friday, 17 January 2020 02:47:30 UTC, Bill Wright wrote:
I was trying to think of all the sacrificial things. Sacrificial anodes
on ships, yes. But... how about the face of a wooden mallet? Because the
reason it's wood is because steel would be too hard. Because the wood is
softer it's more likely to get damaged. Stretching a point? A wooden
gramophone needle, which wears out quickly but doesn't damage the
shellac? Can anyone think of sacrificial things?

gram needles were often thorns.

Well I never knew that. How did they attach the thorn to the sensing
device (diaphragm of mechanical horn, moving iron in coil, or piezo
crystal) sufficiently firmly that no frequencies were attenuated by the
flexibility of the thorn and of the thorn-to-sensor joint and yet which
allowed the thorn to be replaced quickly and easily whenever it wore down?

Interesting that "modern" (well, before LPs were supplanted by CDs etc)
was the exact opposite philosophy: stylus made of diamond which is
extremely hard, and which could theoretically damage the vinyl record.