On 4 May 2005 05:59:12 -0700, wrote:


The retired couple across the road have offered the use of their
radiogram but I'm not sure how well it would cope with Quo or how
well
the album will cope with a stylus that has re-treaded a good few 78's
in it's time ?? ;-)

it would work, and in most cases not damage, but the worst ones do
eventually trash records, grinding noise and distortion into them.
Might improve the sound of the bands chosen.

I won't mention her first concerts have been Rammstein and Megadeth
then? ;-)

Its crystal pickups and
broken needles that are the problems. Ceramics are more popular than
xtal, but anything that looks 50s or earlier is better avoided if you
want to keep the records long term.

Ok ..

BTW dirty records can be cleaned with water and washing liquid, but it
takes repeated wiping along the grooves to dislodge the deep crud.

Now you mention it I remember doing so as a lad ;-)

It would be an education for her to hear just how totally sh1te those
grams sound, but would no doubt put her right off records. 8 tracks
next, or wire recorders?

Well you have touched on part of the 'goal' here .. and that's her
education. We have 'talked' to her about stuff from a babe, and have
played / demonstrated with stuff as well. I had her soldering at 5
years old and angle grinding / pillar drilling and MIG welding at 8.
She also raced 12th scale cars and was winning ballroom dancing
awards. I believe exposing her to all this stuff, old or futuristic is
all part of what helps round her as a person. Some of her mates are
more intelligent but come across as naive re worldly things in
comparison?

78s are a lot more flexible, so to speak, in that you can play them
with a plastic cup, a thorn and a huge card horn. Sadly the almost non
existence of anything worth listening to is a problem. But you can
record your own on ali sheet blanks.

The couple across the road have some ... maybe we can 'play' over
there .. ;-)

You can always make your own pickup and feed it thru the hifi. I had
good results (ok, delete the 'good') with earpieces, copper wire and
assorted needles.

Sounds like fun .. the the first sounds from your first Xtal set ..
;-)


So, it's off to "Elastic bands R us" tomorrow to see what I can find

if you must make your own belt, use flat knicker elastic and sew the
ends together with thread.

I knew someone would think of just the right ready made section .. and
I bet it's 2d / mile (and we actually have a local haberdashers and
Woolworths) ;-)

You'll want to use pliers to force the
needle through, it grips like a grippy thing. If the elastic is wo weak
you cant butt sew it, make the overlap lump curved to avoid a thump as
it crosses the motor spindle. Avoid cotton covered elastic if poss, it
can work, but not well.

Gotcha .. or maybe my Supa Supaglue ..

If you keep the belt tension low you wont notice any thump, even with a
bad join. Thats assuming its an ali platter, not a 5g plastic one,

No, a reasonable weight and thickish rim ally one ..

which create their own noise and amplify it as a sort of ongoing
perennial winge about being made of plastic. Those can at least be
tamed a bit with a thick rubber mat, or lots of plasticine underneath.

Loads of inertia ;-)

Tension needed is minimal, it has to turn a tt on a central bearing and
deal with the friction off a massive 2g of stylus.

Indeed ..

You can explain that wow and flutter is a good 1000x what it is on
computerised systems,

But hey .. that's part of the character?

and with one of those strobe speed cards watch
the lines go backwards and forwards as the speed goes up and down each
revolution.

And so doing learn a bit about strobes ..

And watch the pickup geometry as it progressively twists
relative to the grooves.

Yep and that any compensation has to work with those effects?

And explain why it howls when you turn the
volume up,

I even 'resolved' that one for my nephew recently on the CD system
they were about to throw away ... I lifted it up off the same shelf as
the speakers ...

and where all the snap crackle and pop comes from.

Breakfast?

And if
her IQ is in single figures, why no-one uses them any more.

I think her IQ is reasonable (she's been offered a place at one of
those "Gifted and Talented Childeren" orgs but "I don't want to play
chess with geeks thanks" was her reply g) and is genuinley
entertained by the stuff her and her old dad play with (mostly) ;-)

Yes you can
make top quality decks, but not at sensible prices.

We don't want to invent the wheel do we .. just play with it ;-)

All the best fella ..

T i m

We were talking this morning about the new Hitchhikers film and she
said she didn't want to see it as it looked from the clips like it
didn't follow the image of the key characters like Marvin and Zaphod
from the book and TV shows very well. I said "well they aren't trying
to .. they are trying to follow the spirit of it whilst putting a more
modern slant on it ..?" She replied "like it needs more slant .. any
more slant and it would be horizontial!" (well it made me chuckle
anyway) ;-)