Re: [ARSCLIST] vinyl 78's

[David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yes..pop 78s on Mercury appear to be manufactured by Columbia in the mid 50s 
and are definitely breakable shellac, not the Merco Plastic of a couple of 
years earlier. Mind you, Columbia may have been getting out of the lamination 
process in the mid 50s, at least at some plants..I've seen one or two red 
Columbias from this time that have been broken and were not laminated.

But Clef 78s (all that I've seen) are still on some vinyl compound. Go figure.

dl

Tom Fine wrote:
> Hi David:
>
> When you say "Mercury went BACK to shellac some time in the mid 50s," do 
> you mean for 78's or microgroove? I have no Mercury or Emarcy recording 
> among many from that time-frame that appear to be pure shellac but there 
> is that strange vinyl-ish material for the Emarcy jazz records. Was 
> Mercury still pressing 78's widely in the mid-50's?
>
> -- Tom Fine
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Lennick" <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Friday, January 04, 2008 8:11 PM
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] vinyl 78's
>
>
> > The majors began using vinyl for kiddie records around 1947 (earlier 
> > in the case of Cosmo's "Tubby the Tuba" in 1945) and Victor began 
> > pressing DeLuxe editions also in 1946 or 47. Decca put out a few 
> > pressings on plastic as well (Eugene List playing the Rachmaninoff 
> > 2nd). I don't think there was much use of plastic for commercial 78s 
> > until wartime restrictions ended, but of course V-Discs were vinyl 
> > (except the ones Columbia pressed).
> >
> > Victor put out the Stokowski "Gurrelieder" on its Victrolac compound 
> > in the early 30s. Aside from their use of the stuff on 33RPM Program 
> > Transcriptions, that's the only example I can cite of commercial discs 
> > on vinyl at that stage.
> >
> > DJ pressings used vinyl in the mid 40s, of course (except Musicrap). 
> > Mercury and MGM seemed to have switched to vinylite (Merco-Plastic, 
> > Metrolite) in mid 1949, and a number of other small labels went along, 
> > while the majors stayed with shellac for the most part.
> >
> > Anyone know why Mercury went BACK to shellac some time in the mid 50s? 
> > (Canadian pressings remained on Quality's vinyl-ish material to the end.)
> >
> > dl
> >
> > Tom Fine wrote:
> > > What's the history of vinyl 78's? I have a small pile from I think 
> > > the very early 50's, these are pop and country tunes. Was vinyl used 
> > > for 78's in any mass quantities previous to when vinyl LPs were 
> > > mass-manufactured? The "newest" vinyl 78's I know of are kiddie 
> > > records pressed in the mid-60's. Aside from novelty stuff, was the 
> > > medium used after the mid-60's?
> > >
> > > Thanks for the coming history lesson!
> > >
> > > -- Tom Fine