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78 rpm restorations home
Restoring 78's ?

When considering the methods used to produce 78RPM records it's not hard to realise that many modern turntables will out perform the recording methods and equipment of the time without question. I have used any number of turntables over the years and can only make a few suggestions:

  • Direct drive is better - You don't get problems with belt slippage which seem to be more evident when you crank the platter speed up to 78rpm.
  • A heavy platter is good but not essential - Again, we are talking 78s here... cranking up the angular velocity likely reduces any turntable wow which would already be considerably better than that of the original recording equipment!
  • DC-Servo control - Try and find a turntable with a DC-servo (motor-speed) feedback circuit - Nearly any turntable that boasts "DC motor control" will have this.
  • A built in strobe is great but not essential - you can download and print your own strobe disks if required.
  • Linear tracking turntables - these have both good and bad aspects:
    • They will track most 10" and 12" 78s to the centre but will struggle with 8" discs.
    • You will either need a P4 cartridge or a linear tracking arm with a standard head shell attachment (only a few models exist with this feature) - I modified the tone arm on mine to take standard cartridges.
    • They have the advantage that you don't have to touch the cartridge during normal operation unless you are changing stylus size.
    • They look cool! - but not worth the effort (unless you find them fascinating like me). I still have to use a standard S-tonerarm player for 8" or smaller disks.

I use a standard S-tone arm player with a Shure M78S 2.5mil stylus to help me clean record grooves or just normal listening. Since it has a low voltage DC-servo motor and control circuit, I simply found the resistor feedback network that set the base speeds and changed them so that 33rpm is now 78rpm leaving 45rpm as is. The counter-weight has been used to balance the tonearm-cartridge combination and then a 4g head-shell weight used to set the stylus pressure (photo 3).

For transcriptions I use a Realistic LAB-2000 linear tracking turntable. It's great in that it has an adjustable tone arm counter weight, heavy direct drive platter and excellent responsive touch controls. The only catch is that the 33 and 45rpm speeds are not completely independent. When I altered the set resistance's to change 33rpm up to 78rpm, it impacted on the 45rpm speed setting. It took quite a bit of trial and error to get both 78rpm and 45rpm working correctly. The advantage of this effort is that I can use the strobe to set the platter speed to 45rpm and then when I flick the speed over to 78rpm I know I don't have to re-check the speed.
I have not seen this interactive setup on any of the other turntables I've modified but be prepared for the additional effort if you come across one yourself. As above, the tone-arm counter weight was set to balance the tone-arm and a head weight used for setting stylus pressure. Additional stylus pressure can simply be gained by adding weighted amounts on top of the head shell.

Keep in mind that although I use a linear tracking turntable out of appreciation of it's complexity, it is not suitable for all types of 78s. You can run into issues when:

  • Records are smaller than 8" in diameter - it throws the auto return before completing the record.
  • Records with smaller labels/additional recording time - same as above
  • Thick records like Edison Diamond Disks - the tone arm has a relatively lower record clearance when disengaged.

It is quite easy to remove the "auto-return" mechanics on a standard turntable, but this is all controlled electronically on a linear tracking turntable. Even when you mask the photo-sensors etc, it may have other mechanisms of detecting the end of a record that come into play. More importantly, the linear tracking mechanism (specifically the guide rod) may not allow complete traversal of the tone arm across the record. This will most likely be the main reason preventing you from playing 8" or smaller disks. Keep this in mind but don't let it deter you if you are dedicated to them!