People born after 1960: what's your take on shellac?

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You know, old 78's?

Heavy things, drop them and they shatter. Play them and they sound tinny, but then only old boxes can play them. Or really heavy hi-fidelity units.

So who's nostalgic for these things? Don't ask me, I was born in 1961.

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 5 May 2005 07:51 (twenty years ago)

Better than Rapeman but not as good as Big Black.

Thank you ladies and gentleman you've been a marvellous audience my name is Duncan Norvelle chase me goodnight.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 5 May 2005 07:55 (twenty years ago)

Many years ago, when I was but a kidling, we (me and my three sisters) had a wind up gramaphone and a stack of old 78s, including "Horsey keep your tail up (keep the sun out of my eyes)" (which was played a lot), "Barnacle Bill the Sailor" and "The Laughing Policeman". Many happy hours were spent playing them (no video games then, kids). They disappeared at some point in the transition from childhood to teenagerhood. However, I can still recount these tales to my kids (and bore them rigid). So I guess in a sad way I'm kind of nostalgic for them (but not enough to buy a CD with that stuff on it, somehow it wouldn't be the same).

― andyjack (andyjack), Thursday, 5 May 2005 08:53 (twenty years ago)

Maybe people born after 1950? Shellac became scarce during WW2 and then vinyl LPs were introduced in 1948. But I'll bet Scott Seward has a cache of 78s from the little-known psychedelic foxtrot scene.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Thursday, 5 May 2005 08:58 (twenty years ago)

xpost Whoops, I shouldn't have done that, as I'm too old...

― andyjack (andyjack), Thursday, 5 May 2005 09:03 (twenty years ago)

I really don't go out of my way to buy old 78's mostly cuz they are so damned heavy! I see boxes of them at yard sales sometimes, and unless there is something really cool (like jazz) or wacky (i have a great rendition of shoe fly pie and apple pan dowdy on 78) i pass on them. (and yes, i am looking for 20's blues records in those boxes. and no, i will never find any.) Plus, they have to be in really good shape to sound good and they often aren't and they do break easily. But they DON'T sound "tinny" if you play them on the right equipment. They can sound amazing. Deep booming bass sounds that will probably never be duplicated in other mediums. And that uncanny feeling, on the best-sounding (and some of the earliest) records that the band/singer are right there in the room with you playing.
My wife's aunt here on the island still pulls out her Edison tubes every now and again. She has two working players. A lot of them sound like hell, but even on those, there is something magical about the sounds reaching your ear. Transmissions from another galaxy.
I need a new (old) turntable for 78s. That's the best way to play them for fun. Buy a cheapo turntable at a thrift store that has a 78 speed on it and ONLY play 78s on it. Then you can just beat it all to hell and not worry about it. And, obviously, it helps to find an old one with the proper weight (or weights) behind it. Today's feather-light needles are not made to play 78's and will definitely make them sound "tinny".

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 5 May 2005 09:51 (twenty years ago)

Generally, I have abandoned even vinyl by now.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 5 May 2005 10:05 (twenty years ago)

xpost

hahaha Scott I figured you'd have some 78s but Edison cylinders? Wow! Now that's old school.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Thursday, 5 May 2005 10:13 (twenty years ago)

If you drop a shellac disc and it breaks, you can put it in denatured alchohol for a few days, and then you can refinish that old table that's really starting to look pretty shabby with all of those water rings on top of it.

And next time, use a coaster. CDs are good for this purpose.

― diedre mousedropping (Dave225), Thursday, 5 May 2005 11:01 (twenty years ago)

My dad has a 78 player and I love how loud it is. It really takes over the room when it's playing. The idea of collecting music from the 20s-40s as it was released appeals to me, but I'm at least fourty years too late to go canvassing for 78s and I'll never be rich enough to buy myself a good collection.

― Ogmor Roundtrouser (Ogmor Roundtrouser), Thursday, 5 May 2005 15:18 (twenty years ago)

78s make me nervous. I have some that were handed down to me but I don't have a proper turntable to play them on so they just sit on the shelf. They're so heavy and fragile feeling but some of the labels are really beautiful.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Thursday, 5 May 2005 15:22 (twenty years ago)

It made me appreciate the beetles more.

― PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie), Thursday, 5 May 2005 15:22 (twenty years ago)

beetles people...shellac is made from beetles.

sheesh.

― PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie), Thursday, 5 May 2005 16:50 (twenty years ago)

Wow, I never knew that! That's pretty amazing.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Thursday, 5 May 2005 16:54 (twenty years ago)

They make great sample material.

― donut debonair (donut), Thursday, 5 May 2005 16:59 (twenty years ago)

Both shellacs that is.

― donut debonair (donut), Thursday, 5 May 2005 16:59 (twenty years ago)

I just saw Shellac in concert a couple week ago. They played quite a few new songs! hopefully fucking record is coming out soon.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 5 May 2005 17:00 (twenty years ago)

Here's what Elvis Costello (b. 1954) has to say about it:

But late in the evening as I sit here moping
With a bamboo needle on a shellac of Chopin
And the cast-iron heart that you failed to tear open

― The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Thursday, 5 May 2005 17:04 (twenty years ago)

I just sold about 50 old 78s for $10. No market for them apparently. I kept the good ones though.

― diedre mousedropping (Dave225), Thursday, 5 May 2005 17:13 (twenty years ago)

I have a spring-driven 78 player, but I'm not sure I have any actual 78s. I raided my parents' stash many years ago only to find that the stiff, fragile 10" disks were 33s! There used to be a 78s sub-area of our local record swap meet, but I think they're long gone. Eventually I'll find something at a thrift store.

― nickn (nickn), Thursday, 5 May 2005 17:14 (twenty years ago)

One of my best friends in high school had some Little Richard sides. Really well kept, they sounded tremendous.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Thursday, 5 May 2005 17:24 (twenty years ago)

I thought it'd take longer for a Steve Albini-related joke.

― Nick H (Nick H), Thursday, 5 May 2005 17:32 (twenty years ago)

My first 78 purchase was Coleman Hawkins' Disorder at the Border from a thrift store for $1 back in 1992. Fuck yeah.

― PappaWheelie (PappaWheelie), Thursday, 5 May 2005 17:54 (twenty years ago)

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