WE PAY FINDERS FEES
For any lead that culminates in the purchase of a quality collection of rare records by artists such as King Oliver, Bix Beiderbecke, Bessie Smith, Muddy Waters, Charley Patton, Charlie Poole, Charlie Parker or Charlie Feathers.
If you have any records with labels like those shown in the picture above, I am particularly interested in purchasing them. Minimum offer for vocal "Berliner" records in faircondition like those in the picture is GBP25.
I am particularly looking for records of British Music Hall artists on 78 rpm discs as well as on phonograph cylinders. Artist names include Ben Albert, Wilkie Bard, Herbert Campbell, Kate Carney, Harry Champion, Albert Chevalier, Tom Costello, Whit Cunliffe, Herbert Darley, Dorrie Dene,Gus Elen, Fred Elton, Florrie Forde, Harry Fragson, Lil Hawthorn, Alec Hurley, Nelson Jackson, Hetty King, R G Knowles, Lillie Langtry, George Lashwood, Little Tich, Dan Leno, Alice Lloyd, Marie Lloyd, Sam Mayo, Victoria Monks, Pat Rafferty, Harry Randall, Phil Ray, Arthur Rigby, Ella Retford, Malcolm Scott, Ernest Shand, Mark Sheridan, Eugene Stratton, Vesta Tilley, Vesta Victoria.
The Vinyl Underground, also known as the sickest place to shop for vinyl records in the KC metro and beyond, drops new vinyl every Thursday from every genre, every era, and from both popular and obscure artists. Some of our most recent releases include Bud Powell, Ghost, Richard Thompson, Pink Floyd, Tears for Fears, Mitski, and Quincy Jones.
Any flat disc record, made between about 1898 and the late 1950s and playing at a speed around 78 revolutions per minute is called a "78" by collectors. The materials of which discs were made and with which they were coated were also various; shellac eventually became the commonest material. Generally 78s are made of a brittle material which uses a shellac resin (thus their other name is shellac records). During and after World War II when shellac supplies were extremely limited, some 78 rpm records were pressed in vinyl instead of shellac (wax), particularly the six-minute 12" 78 rpm records produced by V-Disc for distribution to US troops in World War II.
Earliest speeds of rotation varied widely, but by 1910 most records were recorded at about 78 to 80 rpm. In 1925, 78.26 rpm was chosen as a standard for motorized phonographs, because it was suitable for most existing records, and was easily achieved using a standard 3600-rpm motor and 46-tooth gear (78.26 = 3600/46). Thus these records became known as 78s (or "seventy-eights"). This term did not come into use until after World War II when a need developed to distinguish the 78 from other newer disc record formats. Earlier they were just called records, or when there was a need to distinguish them from cylinders, disc records.
The Most Valuable Vinyl Record In The World
John Marshall's love for old records began when he startedcollecting albums from the jukebox distributor down the street from hischildhood home. His collection grew during a 30-year career in radio, when hewould save promo records that flooded the station.
"I bought many of them purely for the love of music, notrealizing then they could be worth a lot of money down the road," he says. "It was probably in themid-70's that I became aware there was a collector's market for records."
The record falls into the category of collectible recordsknown as "Northern Soul," a term that came about several years ago whenobscure soul music from the U.S. became in high demand in northern England.
Of course, it's not the only valuable record. As Marshallexplains, the most collectible records are those recorded by the Beatles andElvis Presley. Original stereo copies of the Beatles album Yesterday and Todaycan be worth as much as $25,000.
Joe Lauro owns Old78s.com,and is perhaps the world's foremost expert on shellac 78 records. He saysplayback quality varies significantly between the shellac records produced byrecord companies.
"The usage of shellac became the norm circa 1900's, andthe better the shellac, the better the sound of the record in terms of lesssurface noise," he says. "The smaller record companies that offeredexpensive records often mixed the shellac with other particles like sand orwood, and the result was a very noisy playing surface. Better companies likeColumbia and Victor used superior quality shellac and the records sounded muchbetter. The circa 1920's to early 30's Columbia and Okeh labels were thebest, as their records were laminated with a cardboard core and much purershellac playing surface."
Lauro says he will pay thousands of dollars for certainrecords on Paramount and other labels, but cautions: "Not all records on theselabels are of value. It's just that the rarest ones often turn up on theselabels. Value is driven by rarity and desirability. Just because it's 100years old does not make it valuable. It's a matter of what the record is."
A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), a vinyl record (for later varieties only), or simply a record is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts near the periphery and ends near the center of the disc. For about half a century, the discs were commonly made from shellac, with earlier records having a fine abrasive filler mixed in. Starting in the 1940s polyvinyl chloride became common, the "vinyl records" of the late 20th century.
Manufacture of disc records began in the late 19th century, at first competing with earlier cylinder records. Price, ease of use and storage made the disc record dominant by the 1910s. The standard format of disc records became known to later generations as "78s" after their playback speed in revolutions per minute, although that speed only became standardized in the late 1920s. In the late 1940s new formats pressed in vinyl, the 45 rpm single and 33 rpm long playing "LP", were introduced, gradually overtaking the formerly standard "78s" over the next decade. The late 1950s saw the introduction of stereophonic sound on commercial discs.
The speed regulator was furnished with an indicator that showed the speed when the machine was running so that the records, on reproduction, could be revolved at exactly the same speed...The literature does not disclose why 78 rpm was chosen for the phonograph industry, apparently this just happened to be the speed created by one of the early machines and, for no other reason continued to be used.[16]
A 1926 Wanamaker's ad in The New York Times offers records "by the latest Victor process of electrical recording".[23] It was recognized as a breakthrough; in 1930, a Times music critic stated:
... the time has come for serious musical criticism to take account of performances of great music reproduced by means of the records. To claim that the records have succeeded in exact and complete reproduction of all details of symphonic or operatic performances ... would be extravagant ... [but] the article of today is so far in advance of the old machines as hardly to admit classification under the same name. Electrical recording and reproduction have combined to retain vitality and color in recitals by proxy.[24]
Sales of records plummeted precipitously during the early years of the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the entire record industry in America nearly foundered. In 1932, RCA Victor introduced a basic, inexpensive turntable called the Duo Jr., which was designed to be connected to their radio receivers. According to Edward Wallerstein (the general manager of the RCA Victor Division), this device was "instrumental in revitalizing the industry".[27]
During the Second World War, the United States Armed Forces produced thousands of 12-inch vinyl 78 rpm V-Discs for use by the troops overseas.[29] After the war, the use of vinyl became more practical as new record players with lightweight crystal pickups and precision-ground styli made of sapphire or an exotic osmium alloy proliferated. In late 1945, RCA Victor began offering "De Luxe" transparent red vinyl pressings of some Red Seal classical 78s, at a de luxe price. Later, Decca Records introduced vinyl Deccalite 78s, while other record companies used vinyl formulations trademarked as Metrolite, Merco Plastic, and Sav-o-flex, but these were mainly used to produce "unbreakable" children's records and special thin vinyl DJ pressings for shipment to radio stations.[30]
"Record albums" were originally booklets containing collections of multiple disc records of related material, the name being related to photograph albums or scrap albums. German record company Odeon pioneered the album in 1909 when it released the Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky on four double-sided discs in a specially designed package.[38] It was not until the LP era that an entire album of material could be included on a single record.
In the 1990s Rhino Records issued a series of boxed sets of 78 rpm reissues of early rock and roll hits, intended for owners of vintage jukeboxes. The records were made of vinyl, however, and some of the earlier vintage 78 rpm jukeboxes and record players (the ones that were pre-war) were designed with heavy tone arms to play the hard slate-impregnated shellac records of their time. These vinyl Rhino 78's were softer and would be destroyed by old juke boxes and old record players, but play very well on newer 78-capable turntables with modern lightweight tone arms and jewel needles.[44]
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