[Vintage-Audio] Speaking Of Needles

[Duane Fischer, W8DBF]

Hi All,

I got into a discourse last week with several friends who were interested in 
finding some record player, or phonograph box set, in a pawn or junk shop, 
to play some old fifties albums and 45 singles on.

Help me out here, you files of audio -

Once upon a time, far far back in ancient history, according to my oldest 
grandson who is convinced they did not have toilets that flushed, running 
water in a house or lawn mowers with a gas powered Briggs and Stratton 
engine on them back when Gramps was his age, was there not a difference in 
both the diameter and penetration depth of the phonograph needle?

I recall something about a 3 mil needle. I think was for mono recordings and 
moved up and down. However, there was a different needle for the 33 1/3 rpm 
album or the 45 rpm single. Or was there?

I do recall using a "real" Copper Lincoln Wheat Cent in 1958 with a weight 
of 4.11 grams to help a needle track an album. (FYI: in 1982 the Treasury 
reduced the contents of the penny to 97.5% Zinc and 2.5% Copper, due to the 
rise in the price of Copper. The weight of the penny then, and now, is 2.5 
grams. About 1962, the weight was reduced from 4.11 grams to 3.4 grams 
aprox, I think.) When I got my first decent player of records, which was 
also my first stereo, in December of 1964, how things changed!

I was shot by a stranger using a twelve gauge shotgun loaded with #6 
birdshot on the eve of my eighteenth birthday in October of 1964. He was on 
the property beside my parent's yard, about sixty feet from me. They were 
not supposed to hut Pheasants, or anything else there, as it was too close 
to the suburban houses. He heard a bird, spun and hip shot. He actually hit 
me as I turned my head from due west to due south! So we knew he did not 
turn, look, take the gun off safety, aim and fire! It was that Christmas 
that almost everyone gave me money, as they had no idea as to what to buy 
for a blind person.

I got an EICO stereo kit, no cabinet, about 15 watts RMS per channel. It was 
a kit, my cousin, a true AudioFile, also the only full professor General 
Motors Tech Center ever employed who only had a B.S. degree! Brilliant? You 
bet! He built the EICO amp for me. Every wire was precise, but with X% 
allowed for an emergency resolder, should one be needed someday. I used that 
amp for ten years, changed one tube that went microphonic.

I also got a Giarrard, (how do you sorrectly spell that?), model AT-50 
record changer. It did chave a Shure cartridge and stylus, but I no longer 
recall which one. It had three speeds? Or was it two? yes, it had 45 with an 
adapter and 33 1/3 for albums, but did it have a speed for 78 also?

Now since this was stereo, the stylus moved up/down and left/right, to 
pickup all tracks. What was the mil of this stylus? When did they change 
from 3 mil to 1 mil?

Wasn't there a different needle used to play a 45 rpm single? I recall a 
lever that flipped the cartridge on a Magnavox mono record player with one.

Anything any of you can tell me about the evolution of the needle, AKA the 
"stylus", when did that change?, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks! This time I promise to put it into my Audio Tech File, for future 
consultation or to pass it along to some other vinyl lover in need.

Duane Fischer, W8DBF/WPE8CXO
dfischer at usol.com
HHI: Halligan's Hallicrafters International
http://www.w9wze.net
HHRP: Historic Halligan Radio Project
hhrp.w9wze.net