I spent a lot of time at my maternal grandmother Polly's home. Her leisure time was spent playing gramophone records. No LP's or 45's then - they were all 78rpm discs.These were made of shellac- all of them hissed, crackled and clicked and the brittle material broke or cracked easily. Even so, I loved the sound of the Dance Bands and Singers of those bygone days and I love them even more now.
I fixed an extra pickup arm onto the record turntable. By placing both needles or styli in the same groove, I got the realistic echo sound that records did not have.
By the time I was 23 I had my first new revolutionary toy - a reel to reel tape Recorder, and a tape loop echo device. My Record Collection on tape was the best sounding selection of anyone I know.
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I Joined the BBC in January 1971 and determined to make my Record Programme the best on Air.
My first regular programme was called "The 30's Club" (1930's that is). The programme had an excellent format and had a great listening audience. When a new Programme "Organiser " joined us, he said to me one day "Er don't play any more than 3 of those old 78's per nostalgia programme"
"78's are nostalgia" I told him!"
By this time I knew all about the pressings and manufacture of the 78's, so reverting to what I had discovered during my school days and using the latest technology available to me to remove surface noise I started to restore the original sound of the record.
- every track played on my programme was a 78.after that.
Three months later he said to me "See how much better the Programme sounds since you stopped playing those old 78's!!!" I didn't enlighten him.
I had succeeded in refining and it wasn't long before record companies approached me to make LP re-issues of 78's for them.
The first step in restoring old 78's is to use a stylus which corresponds in width to the width of the groove on the disc. This varies from 2½ thousandth of an inch to 4 thousandths of an inch. Using a stereo cartridge listen to both walls of the groove and choose the cleanest and clearest, then re-master that one and play it back onto 2 tracks.
This is a costly process. A 4 thousandth truncated stylus, especially made can cost nearly £100 for starters, and using them on often worn or beaten up records means they don't last long.
