Re: [ARSCLIST] Turntable Reverse Rotation

["Russell W. Miller" <rwm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Kevin P. Mostyn writes:
>
> I am working on a project of transferring a collection of 16" lacquers, a
> number of which have suffered water or humidity damage, due to
> poor storage
> conditions.
>
> One of them is a glass base disc of the Koussevitzky 2/27/1943 world
> premiere broadcast of the Roy Harris Symphony #5. One side of the disc is
> playable; the other side is delaminating. A portion of the lacquer has
> started to peel off, but is still attached. I have had some success with
> re-affixing peeling lacquer in the past, but unfortunately, differential
> shrinkage has set in, and the partially peeled off section does not quite
> align with the unpeeled section. The method of re-attaching the peel is
> temporary and not strong, and I would appreciate any hints on a permanent
> method.
>
> While I can readily deal with the clicks and clunks this will cause, I am
> reluctant to try to play the side, as the normal rotation of the disc and
> stylus would "go against the grain" of the peel, and the stylus
> would try to
> lift the peel off the glass. I would probably have a greater chance of
> success in playing this side if I could play the disc while it is rotated
> counter-clockwise, and at 16 2/3 rpm.
>
> Has anyone here ever done this? Of course, the arm will have to be
> re-mounted, and there will be a problem with the offset geometry, but I'm
> willing to suffer the tracking angle distortion if I can play this disc. I
> do have an aircheck of this performance, but the sound on this disc is
> rather better, and without the severe pitch problems of the aircheck.
>
> Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

At the bottom of this page there is an email link for Juraj Poliak:

http://members.chello.se/christer.hamp/phono/poliak.html

I do not know whether there has been any further development of his
technology, which uses an optical fiber to play the record groove, but as
the web page shows it has been used successfully to play a lacquer which has
delaminated beyond the possibility of playing with a conventional stylus.

Another option: doesn't LOC own one or more Simon Yorke turntables?  One of
his (fantastically expensive) models uses a straight tonearm whose offset is
provided entirely by the headshell, which is designed to be reversible so
that the tonearm can be mounted for reverse playback while maintaining the
proper geometry.  It's true enough that reverse playback is done all the
time with normally mounted arms, but that may not work well for your disc in
its present state.  Of course, this option depends on an institution or
collector giving you the use of the turntable, or your having at least $15K
to spare if you'd like to buy your own.  (I'd love one, but my budget is
strictly on the Dual 1249 end of things!)

Best of luck with your project.

Russell