In Germany, steryne records were easy to recognize, because they had no paper labels. The writing was engraved in the matrices, the label area was covered with paint, red for Polydor, blue for Philips and silver gray for Ariola BMG. Styrene is more fragile, it's less breakable as shellac, but easy breakable. With vinyl it takes much force. A single was ⅓ of an album, so pretty expensive. East Germany never had Styrene records, so they are way better.
That was very interesting. I really learned something. I was also entertained by your observation of the younger ones calling a record "a vinyl." I have made the same observation and I just thought it was a kind of retro quirk of usage, sort of like how people used to call every brand of refrigerator a Frigidaire. Oddly the people who are in their 20's now have appropriated some of the ways of our grandparents in terms of what they call things and while our grandparents never called a record "a vinyl" the linguistic function carries over. It doesn't irritate me at all.
I don't know how old this video is, but I wanted to say thank you. I just found you and wish I had done so before now. I learned a lot today. I hope to find more of your work.
Some record companys used one material exclusively. From the 50's to mid 70's RCA Victor used vinyl. In the 1960's and 70's London Records were styrene. Radio stations were often sent styrene copies, but in a short time the discs developed "cue burns" - the stylus dug into the grooves from backtacking to find the start of the song. Capitol's ridge around the label was introduced in the US in 1968 by EMI in the UK, Capitol's parent company.
The technical term for that ridge on Capitol 45's was "360 interlocking serrations." It led to a new label design standard of 3.3125" trim that lasted right up to the point Capitol ceased pressing their own vinyl in early 1986. A Billboard article, at the point that feature was introduced, called them "non-slip discs."
I remember back in the late 70's some bootleg singles were so much heavier than normal records that we thought they were made from metal, they were still black, this was in the UK
i have a lot of styrenes and i love them, they are not so bad, i have some that appear to be worn out but plays perfectly, the vinyl ones usually last longer but i seen some styrenes that suffered a lot more than some vinyl ones and plays better, i think it depends on what kind of equipment it was played and the quality of the styrene, ( i have a lot of vinyl ones (lps and 45's) and they all play perfectly) and yes, i use a connical stylus to play all my records at 2 grams (audio technica at 91) because for me it's really safe for any record and have a really great sound quality, nice video!!
What I hated about the Capitol pressings is those ridges would create a ring that would show on the picture sleeve, especially if the pic sleeve was dark in color.
As a kid buying 45's in the 70's I could always tell the difference between the vinyl and styrene ones even if I didn't know the terms at the time. The styrene 45's were not as glossy or flexible and they wore out sooner. As someone who's owned records since the mid-60's I can't say I've ever come across a styrene LP -- I believe they're pretty rare. Many of the LP's from the early 50's that seem to be styrene are really a harder less-flexible form of vinyl (I'm thinking of the early 10" LP's, for instance).
You're certainly correct, very few LP's were pressed using styrene, based on my sample, running into the hundreds! One that I have got in styrene is "The Beau Brummels Volume 2" (Autumn 104, stereo). Rock Around The Clock (Bill Haley, Decca DL 8225) looks bit like styrene also, but I believe they had their own special composition back in the 50's. "Introducing The Beau Brummels" (Autumn 103, stereo) is on vinyl.
@@maltaylor9753 Many children's records were pressed on styrene, but I'm not sure if that extended to LP's. And I think you're right about the special composition. A lot of the early LP's and EP's, especially the latter before the 12" albums really caught on, seem to be made of a hard, dense vinyl. One advantage of this seems to be that they were quite durable, and if you find ones that were well taken care of they still sound very good even after 70 years. Such is not generally the case with styrene records, which tend to "wear out" relatively quickly.
Shelley Products pressed styrene LP's right through 1966-67, then switched LP pressing to vinyl. Columbia toyed for a time with styrene LP's, beginning around 1952 and continuing through 1960 (although by then only mono Harmony LP's got that treatment - I've not seen a single stereo styrene LP).
@@wmbrown6 I had a few Harmony LP's when I was a kid but they would have been post-1960. I've never come across a styrene LP, but then I don't have very many that are earlier than 1958 or so. Even among my dad's albums, which date from about '56 forward, there are no styrene ones. If I ever come across one I'll probably buy it just for the heck of it.
@@robgrano6814 - 1959-60 was when the last Harmony styrene LP's were pressed. Afterwards, all product from them - whether mono or stereo - was vinyl. I have a Les Brown LP on Harmony released in that period that's styrene.
Great video. I always thought polystyrene records sounded hotter and had a “brighter” sound, but they did wear out faster. Sometimes you can see a worn-out styrene record, as the grooves will turn white. Another interesting thing with styrene records is, beginning with early ‘70s records, if you hold one up to a bright light, you can see through it. The color is a dark red. Apparently, the companies began using less material, because they also seemed lighter. Fascinating stuff!
Monarch and Allied pressed "see-through" styrene 45's as early as 1967, the Columbia Pitman pressing plant as far back as 1969. But Columbia Terre Haute's styrenes didn't get "see-through" until about 1971.
@@wmbrown6 Pretty cool. I never noticed that. I knew you couldn’t see through the earlier Columbia, but I never noticed the Monarch and Allied. I know Monarchs have the M in a circle and a triangle before the matrix number, but how can you tell an Allied? I have to check them out now.😂
Thank you for doing this video. I did not realize this, and I have recorded several records across the years, and also done a radio show for 6 years in the 80s. -interesting information.
@@HitsTownUSA - Steve Hoffman has judged MCA's two pressing plants (in Gloversville, NY and Pinckneyville, IL) among THE worst in terms of vinyl surface noise during the 1970's. They, Capitol and RCA all tended to turn out way off-center pressings. But that's for another examination. In the 1980's, though, some MCA 45's were pressed in styrene by PRC Recording Co. in Richmond, IN. MCA ceased to use Monarch for their pressing needs about two years before they launched the MCA Records label; only Kapp and Uni product were turned out by Monarch, nothing on Decca, Coral or (pre-1970) Brunswick.
Great video Joe. Learned a lot. When it comes to the debate of CD vs vinyl sound quality, I will say this. You can make a CD sound like a record (warm and fuzzy) but you can`t make vinyl sound like a CD with it's dynamic range and clarity. If it's not there, it's not there. Sound quality goes to the CD. The warm and fuzzies go to vinyl. Being from the 60's, we collected RECORDS. "Vinyl" was something only DJ's would throw out there to be hip. Remember that??
I agreed somewhat... Records can be bright and have big dynamic range... Most consumer grade carts can't play them, though. High end record playing equipment can put a CD to shame.
@@EzeeLinux Thanks for replying Joe. Good point. But do remember that the music pressed onto vinyl must be compressed to fit all that music information into those tiny grooves. CD's not so much.
@@Extremesam43 No, it doesn't... It's compressed to be loud on average players. You can get a lot of dynamics in those grooves. Many 12 inch promo singles that went out to radio sound much, much better than their CD counterparts. You have to have the equipment to hear it, though. Most folks don't. :)
Keep up the good work Joe. I also liked the video on the cartridge comparison. I learned the difference between the bonded and nude stylus. Makes sense.
Maybe this explains a problem I am having. I cleaned a bunch of 45s with an enzyme record cleaner I use on my LPs and they all sound TERRIBLE! Is this because the polystyrene was ruined by my cleaning process? Or also I am using a Shibata stylus, so that could be too.
If they came up sounding bad after cleaning then they probably need a more thorough rinsing. I don;' think the cleaner damaged anything but a lot of those don't come off easily... Rinse them with water and dry them quickly... If you're tap water is hard then use distilled water. :)
I was surprised when RCA made 45 singles for their Gold Standard series in the late 1970s thru the 1980s on styrene, but mostly using a rounded edge near the label. And those atrocious Bell and Golden Records injection molding pressings using painted labels that came off too fast! It was rare when Columbia & Epic pressed on vinyl without the disc being a promo. Colored styrene was hard to find unless you saw the record through light.
Great video. Don't think you mentioned it, but one test for styrene that I use is to gently flick the edge of a 45 with my fingernail and listen to the resulting sound; a styrene record will produce a "dink" sound whereas vinyl will produce a "thunk". As an aside, I have a local record store here in LA that has a sign inside the store requesting that customers not call records "vinyls"; can't stand that term myself.
Yes, thumping it works, and the weight. Some people believe holding it to the light trick and look for red, but it is not foolproof. I have some styrene 45's that are not translucent at all. The other foolproof method is to see if you can snap it in half. 🤣
Steve Hoffman also hates the term "vinyls," though even RCA Victor, in some of their journals, used that term to describe LP's and 45's back in the '50's.
I'm really glad I watched this video Joe. I just inherited my parents' record collection and some of the 45s mum gave me go right back to 1959. I'll have to go through them and see which ones are polystyrene now. I'm running a VM540ML on my turntable and was going to play them all on that, not knowing the problems associated with styrene and microline. I have the stock XP3 cart I got with my LP140XP but it isn't terribly exciting. Looks like I might have to pick up a VM95EN for the styrene 45s.
Thanks Joe! I see you are my go to guy in this category as well!:-)....I love 45's myself and probably enjoy them more than the LP's. Question? I have a 45 that I think might be very rare, but maybe it's not. I'll listen to your opinion. The 45 is by Johnny Rivers, called "Rewind" and it's the "B " side to his hit "Baby I Need Your Lovin' (I believe) came out on the Liberty label I think in 1966 or 1967. Anyway it's partitioned off like an LP with 6 or 7 mini snippets of songs that comprise his LP called "Rewind" The reason why this 45 made an impression on me, is that all the tunes are written by Jimmy Webb, and this immediately forged my interest in this legendary tunesmith as I only thought he wrote some hit tunes for Glen Campbell. I have never come across another 45 like this before. Thoughts? thanks again for the education on the ingredients of 45's!!! Bruce
Sounds like a promo for the album... I've seen a few like that. Yes, it's most likely quite rare. There is a Pink Floyd 45 that has 4 songs from "Dark Side Of The Moon" nicely edited for play on the radio... I don't have it but a friend does. I used to have a bunch of weird records like that from radio stations but I gave them away years ago... I only started collecting again about 10 years ago. :)
@@EzeeLinux Great , all right thanks. Do not think it was a promo but I'll check. Wasn't aware of that Pink Floyd single being edited that way. Off topic, when you were a DJ you were doing Top 40? Wow, what a great gig man!! Were you able to edit the playlist a bit?. You ought to do a video of this time in your life no?!! Any books you can recommend that also talk about how these 45's were constructed? The vast majority of my collection is 60's pop and country.
@@Tunz909 I have a bunch of arichecks right here on the channel. I still work in radio. b999fm.com I've worked a lot of formats through the years but mostly Oldies and Country and I was in management for about ten years (yawn). There are no books that I could find that really get into the engineering side of pressing 45s... I know what I know from talking to engineers, record producers and other collectors but I am not an expert.
I bought a record, looking excellent and having distorted sound. Could it be, that it is styrene and someone applied the wood glue method to let it look better, than it sounds?
Great video! Fortunately, styrene was a US thing exclusively. It's easy to stay away from styrene records just by buying 7" singles from anywhere but the States.
For the most part, styrene center labels used 60 or 70 lb. C1S (coated one side) label litho stock, with an adhesive slapped on the back which, when applied to the record, glued it on. Such labels were designated "Heat Seal." 45 labels were printed "24 up" on 19" x 25" paper stock, then cut up into four "6 up" sheets. Columbia, Bestway and Shelley Products all had a label trim of 3.5"; Monarch and Allied had it 3.5625"; and PRC's was 3.625". Vinyl labels were designated as "Compression"; label paper stock was all over the place, ranging from 60 or 70 lb. Kromekote C1S [cast-coated] up to the 1970's (60 lb. was also used on some styrene labels), to 60, 70 or 80 lb. C1S Litho, to 60, 70 or 80 lb. C2S Gloss, to 70 or 80 lb. Dull Coated, to 70 or 80 lb. Matte Coated, to uncoated paper stock of 70 or 80 lb. that was either characterized as Smooth or Offset. Such labels shrunk by about 0.5 - 0.7 percent when pressed onto the record. For the most part, styrene labels that were meant for 45's did not have any center holes drilled onto them. Columbia had this range of die-cut center holes for styrene labels (for 7" 33⅓ RPM promo product) as follows: R - 0.339" = 8.611mm (on a Bridgeport pressing from 1961) 11/32 - 0.34375" = 8.731mm S - 0.348" = 8.839mm T - 0.358" = 9.093mm (on a Terre Haute pressing from 1981) When Pitman began pressing styrene in 1964, 7" 33⅓ RPM label center holes were the same 0.28125" (7.144mm) or 0.281" (K, = 7.137mm) as used for LP die-cut center holes by Columbia then; not until 1965 did they use 0.34375" or 0.348" holes. Bestway hewed more to the 0.34375" size. Shelley Products usually used L - 0.290" = 7.366mm or M - 0.295" = 7.493mm drills, though I saw one from 1967 where the hole measured 0.302" (N, = 7.671mm). PRC's range of die-cut center holes for styrene 7" 33⅓ RPM's was: 3/8 - 0.375" = 9.525mm V - 0.377" = 9.576mm W - 0.386" = 9.804mm X - 0.397" = 10.084mm (0.386" was also used in 1966-67 by Columbia Santa Maria; by late '67, however, they went with 0.34375".)
@@gregaiken1725 - I apprenticed to a printer on and off for a few years, and also have studied various paper weights both from that plus working in a field of investigation. And had access to the archives of one of the major record companies. Technically, it could be called a "hobby," but it seems I've accumulated more knowledge on that than a lot of those in the industry itself.
Vinyl, Unbreakable and similar terms were printed on jackets and sleeves when record companies abandoned 78 rpm shellac. The rise under the label was on Columbia’s 33+1/3 and RCA’s 45 rpm records from the start. Playing stacks of records was a thing going back to 78s. Otherwise I’m in basic agreement on this subject. But, haven’t you noticed that polystyrene gets hard and brittle over time? Now old CDs are showing degradation of the plastic. Also, I wonder how well lighter records would work with vintage turntables and jukeboxes.
I am a 45 RPM records collector since the early 80's. At that time I did not know the difference thus some of those called styrene (Columbia, RCA, Chrysallis, A&M) got wear with plays. My Warner Bros, Motown, MCA sound like new 40 years later. In summary, I do hate styrene. Do you know that in Canada all labels were pressed on vinyl? 100% of my MCA, Motown, Atlantic, Capitol, Warner Bros are all vinyl, not styrene. It is interesting to note that most promos on all those companies were pressed on styrene, except A&M which surprisingly pressed their regular commercial records on styrene, on the contrary, their promos were ALL on high quality durable vinyl.
In the 1970’s they put records on back of cereal boxes. The Osmonds, Jackson’s and Bobby Sherman ect. What was that plastic made of? I wasn’t too interested in music then, but my sisters were of the age that Tigerbeat and stories of the private lives of the teeny boppers was a big deal. I do remember listening to the free records cut off the box, and thinking they sounded bad.
Who knows? LOL. They also had sound sheets in magazines too. They all sounded band but you could hear what was on them and that was good enough to be a gimmick.
@@EzeeLinux in spite of the poor quality, there are probably people that collect these. Sometimes the things that were never meant to be saved can become quite valuable to collectors.
I know the long term quality is better with vinyl but for me as far as looks go - a well kept or mint polystyrene just looks better, labels are bigger and more colorful
Conical stylusus at a really low grracking weight will preserve styrenes better Some high end garage and beat group 45's were only pressed on styrenes so watch the weight.
The styrene 45s that I have (bought used) always sound terrible. I have some old Decca LPs with the black labels that are also styrene. For some reason the styrene LPs seem to hold up better than the 45s. I think one of the very first videos that I watched on youtube (over ten years ago) was one you did about a Realistic cassette deck. Since cassettes are making sort of a comeback, you should start doing cassette videos again.
I've been lucky with styrene. Most I have come across are in good enough condition to play and enjoy.I don't fool with tape decks much anymore. I don't even have one hooked up to a big stereo, just a boombox I can play a tape on if I want to. That was sort of a mid-life crisis thing... LOL
Then there's vinyl vs Shellac for 78s(technically not necessarily 78 RPM, might be 78.26 or 80+ RPMs) and then there's the phono vs gramophone! The award show is called the Grammys for a reason!
The Anadialog UA-cam channel presented a video called “Injection-molding green LP records: Vinyl's farewell?” in September of 2023. Anyone have an opinion of this new injection album printing process?
I saw that video. It was unclear what material those records would be made of. Poly is brittle and a 12 inch record would end up being quite fragile and prone to cracking. We shall see if this actually takes hold or not.
@@EzeeLinux - 1991, actually. In November of that year, Sony Music (ex CBS Records) closed their Carrollton, GA pressing plant, the last they owned that pressed vinyl LP's and styrene 45's. They then went for the next several years to the MCA plant in Gloversville, NY. With Carrollton's closure, the specs for 45 styrene labels - 3.75" bleed and centering for 3.5" trim labels - went with them. PRC was sold to Cinram in 1990, Shelley Products closed in 1985 (and Bestway around 1986), and the last styrene Allied 45's came out in 1989.
vinyl 7” records sounds better than styrene, styrene records wear out faster, too much tracking force will destroy a styrene record in a few plays, vinyl records are much easier to grade visually, styrene records will sometimes have to be played to determine the quality (I have a stack of excellent to near mint styrene records that play with too much hiss and distortion to consider keeping or selling). However, styrene records will sound absolutely fine if they were well cared for. With the vinyl records making a comeback and people saying stuff like “vinyl sounds better than CD” A good way to look at styrene 45’s is they are basically a novelty pressing made when the record companies could press them quickly and cheaper than vinyl pressings. If you are lucky enough to get a perfect sounding styrene 45 then that’s great, but nobody can expect that from every single one they get, you need to expect random hiss noises at the start or in the middle of the record and occasional distortion.
Polystyrene is actually a quieter playing surface than vinyl. They often sound better. I am super careful with turntable setup and none of my styrene 45's have ever shown any wear from me playing them. But, you're right in saying that they will degrade quickly if played with an old needle or too much VTF. :)
2 Fool proof way of checking: 1) weight. 2) thump it; Styrene rings like a bell and vinyl thumps. Some people believe holding it to the light works, but it's not foolproof. Most of the time Polystyrene will appear red, but not always. Polystyrene was not always exactly the same composition. I have 2 such titles from Laurie Records and Smash Records that are styrene and are not translucent at all.
Magnetic carts have been around since the 1930's... 6 grams may have been the standard at one time for ceramic carts but it was too heavy. Those Crosley crappers have sapphire styli and some do indeed track as high as 9 grams when the arm isn't calibrated correctly. Sapphire wars out after about 20 hours of play... They're groove chewing junk. Pernod. :)
I’m not trying to defend Crosleys. But the fact is that they are no worse than the cheap turntables used by most people in the early parts of the LP era. Everybody who is actually weighed a Crosley cartridge, has clocked it in anywhere between 5 and 6 g. When I say magnetic cartridges have only been around since the 1970s. The fact is that they were only really commercially available at a reasonable price around that time. Phonograph preamps are a newish invention. Magnetic cartridges are very light and do not put out the sound output required therefore they must be pre-amplified to get the proper dynamics. I’m not trying to defend these cheap record players, but at the same time you can establish the superiority of a better quality turntable without telling untruths about cheap turntables available today. Oh, and one more thing. When the microgroove records of both Columbia and RCA were first manufactured, the tracking force specification was between five and six grams. This was the least pressure they could use for the cartridges of the day while still giving out the best sound quality possible. Records all the way up until the end of the mainstream LP era were manufactured to accept a 6 g cartridge. Only a handful of modern record records today would not be suitable for that such as dance records with very heavy bass. This is because those records are mostly bought by DJs, who have high-end turntables with low cartridge weight. Yes 5 grams will wear your records faster than 3 grams. But those cheap turntables don’t need artificial bad press.
@@paulblackman8159 Totally agree. While Crosley Cruisers aren't exactly good, anybody who says they "track at 9 grams" are just talking out their ass. The RokBlok is far worse than any Crosley imo, those you truly can call groove chewers if you've seen Techmoan's video.
Did you folks ever think why conical stylus life-cycle is 200-300 h and micro-line/shibata is 800-1000 h? ML/SH provides way better contact so roughly at the same tracking force ML/SH type of stylus makes MUCH less pressure. So using ML/SH is good for a record no matter what material (vinyl or styrene) it is made of. Obviously conical stylus will wear out your record sooner.
Where did you hear that conical styli wear out in 200 hours? That's BS. They will last as long as 1000 hours if cared for properly. Also,, what I said about advanced shapes damaging styrene comes from real-world experience. All the hype about perfect groove contact with MicroLine and Shibata assumes a perfect alignment and doesn't take into account the characteristics of polystyrene. There's a lot of audiophile snake oil in what Millennial-run marketing departments publish these days.
Only encountered styrene with American issues; never in Canada or Europe. Hated, hated HATED them. Hard and glassy, with plenty of shriek, rattle and squawk and wore out in no time no matter how you babied them. Depended on the distributor, so I always preferred vinyl versions or European issues. The WORST offenders were Polygram (Mercury, Vertigo etc.) you can tell instantly by simply tapping them lightly on the edge; vinyl is like butter, styrene is brittle and hard with a kind of ‘ring’. Got good and sick and tired of paying premium prices for vintage styrene; I didn’t mind forking out a dime or quarter at the ol’ Goodwill because they were already shot usually, so they went into the ‘B’ stacks with their own cheap cartridge. ‘Fun’ records - who cared what they sounded like. $25, though, hurt.
PolyGram, over the years, used the following plants that handled styrene: - Columbia (Pitman, NJ - 56; Terre Haute, IN - 73; Santa Maria, CA - 25; after 1987, Carrollton, GA - 57) - Bestway Products (Mountainside, NJ - 19) - Shelley Products (Huntington Station, NY - 54) - PRC (Richmond, IN - 72) - Monarch Record Mfg. Co. (24; until about 1979-80, after which they switched to vinyl for 45's) - Allied Record Co. (22) - RCA (Indianapolis, IN - 70; from the early to mid-1980's up to the point the plant closed in 1987) I much preferred Columbia pressings, and basically those from Pitman.
We used to get away with it using Stanton 680's with elliptical styli on the air but all it would take is one jock to rip that record backwards just this much too hard and then it was over. I don't "cue" anything these days. No need. :)
@@EzeeLinux good, thanks! I used to have a large collection of 78's . I only have two records now. Some of your cartridges you had on here had a stylus for 78 records. I think Shure still has them. Maybe old new stock. I would like to see someone do a video on 45 only record players, my oldest sister had one.
id guess, if one compared the total qty of vinyl discs, to qty of discs made from other materials... would probably be +90% vinyl... hence why this generalization is used.
I think it's easy to say that well over 50 % of the 45's pressed in the US were made of styrene. There were very few styrene LP's, though. I think the name comes mainly from LP's. :)
the easiest way to tell Vinyl from Polystyrene. is to hold it in front of a bright light like a flashlight you cant see light through Vinyl but can see light passing through Polystyrene.
11:30 The non-slip edge around the label of Capitol Records issues was *NOT* a gimmick! It was *NOT* devised by Capitol either. In fact it was devised by Capitol's *PARENT* company, *EMI(The Gramophone Co.) Ltd, Hayes Middlesex England* and was adopted by all the British record companies, as well as EMI's divisions around the world(Capitol was not a "division", Capitol had a much lower status as a mere subsidiary, which is akin to being the *infant toddler* in a family).
Polystyrene 45's suck. They're cheaper to produce than real vinyl records and they don't last. After 20-25 plays, they sound "staticy" and "fuzzy." Hold a styrene 45 up to light & you can see through it. Too many record companies used styrene in the '80s.
In Germany, steryne records were easy to recognize, because they had no paper labels. The writing was engraved in the matrices, the label area was covered with paint, red for Polydor, blue for Philips and silver gray for Ariola BMG.
Styrene is more fragile, it's less breakable as shellac, but easy breakable. With vinyl it takes much force.
A single was ⅓ of an album, so pretty expensive.
East Germany never had Styrene records, so they are way better.
That was very interesting. I really learned something.
I was also entertained by your observation of the younger ones calling a record "a vinyl." I have made the same observation and I just thought it was a kind of retro quirk of usage, sort of like how people used to call every brand of refrigerator a Frigidaire. Oddly the people who are in their 20's now have appropriated some of the ways of our grandparents in terms of what they call things and while our grandparents never called a record "a vinyl" the linguistic function carries over. It doesn't irritate me at all.
I don't know how old this video is, but I wanted to say thank you. I just found you and wish I had done so before now. I learned a lot today. I hope to find more of your work.
Some record companys used one material exclusively. From the 50's to mid 70's RCA Victor used vinyl. In the 1960's and 70's London Records were styrene. Radio stations were often sent styrene copies, but in a short time the discs developed "cue burns" - the stylus dug into the grooves from backtacking to find the start of the song.
Capitol's ridge around the label was introduced in the US in 1968 by EMI in the UK, Capitol's parent company.
The technical term for that ridge on Capitol 45's was "360 interlocking serrations." It led to a new label design standard of 3.3125" trim that lasted right up to the point Capitol ceased pressing their own vinyl in early 1986. A Billboard article, at the point that feature was introduced, called them "non-slip discs."
@@pgh45rpms I have a
Polydor single by James Brown
from the year 1972.
@@pgh45rpms and a couple of
Polydor singles from the 80s .
@@pgh45rpms John Lennon and Eric Clapton.
I remember back in the late 70's some bootleg singles were so much heavier than normal records that we thought they were made from metal, they were still black, this was in the UK
i have a lot of styrenes and i love them, they are not so bad, i have some that appear to be worn out but plays perfectly, the vinyl ones usually last longer but i seen some styrenes that suffered a lot more than some vinyl ones and plays better, i think it depends on what kind of equipment it was played and the quality of the styrene, ( i have a lot of vinyl ones (lps and 45's) and they all play perfectly) and yes, i use a connical stylus to play all my records at 2 grams (audio technica at 91) because for me it's really safe for any record and have a really great sound quality, nice video!!
In the '70's and '80's I shopped at a used record store in St. Louis named "Vintage Vinyl". They're still in business
What I hated about the Capitol pressings is those ridges would create a ring that would show on the picture sleeve, especially if the pic sleeve was dark in color.
As a kid buying 45's in the 70's I could always tell the difference between the vinyl and styrene ones even if I didn't know the terms at the time. The styrene 45's were not as glossy or flexible and they wore out sooner. As someone who's owned records since the mid-60's I can't say I've ever come across a styrene LP -- I believe they're pretty rare. Many of the LP's from the early 50's that seem to be styrene are really a harder less-flexible form of vinyl (I'm thinking of the early 10" LP's, for instance).
You're certainly correct, very few LP's were pressed using styrene, based on my sample, running into the hundreds!
One that I have got in styrene is "The Beau Brummels Volume 2" (Autumn 104, stereo).
Rock Around The Clock (Bill Haley, Decca DL 8225) looks bit like styrene also, but I believe they had their own special composition back in the 50's.
"Introducing The Beau Brummels" (Autumn 103, stereo) is on vinyl.
@@maltaylor9753 Many children's records were pressed on styrene, but I'm not sure if that extended to LP's. And I think you're right about the special composition. A lot of the early LP's and EP's, especially the latter before the 12" albums really caught on, seem to be made of a hard, dense vinyl. One advantage of this seems to be that they were quite durable, and if you find ones that were well taken care of they still sound very good even after 70 years. Such is not generally the case with styrene records, which tend to "wear out" relatively quickly.
Shelley Products pressed styrene LP's right through 1966-67, then switched LP pressing to vinyl. Columbia toyed for a time with styrene LP's, beginning around 1952 and continuing through 1960 (although by then only mono Harmony LP's got that treatment - I've not seen a single stereo styrene LP).
@@wmbrown6 I had a few Harmony LP's when I was a kid but they would have been post-1960. I've never come across a styrene LP, but then I don't have very many that are earlier than 1958 or so. Even among my dad's albums, which date from about '56 forward, there are no styrene ones. If I ever come across one I'll probably buy it just for the heck of it.
@@robgrano6814 - 1959-60 was when the last Harmony styrene LP's were pressed. Afterwards, all product from them - whether mono or stereo - was vinyl. I have a Les Brown LP on Harmony released in that period that's styrene.
Great video. I always thought polystyrene records sounded hotter and had a “brighter” sound, but they did wear out faster. Sometimes you can see a worn-out styrene record, as the grooves will turn white. Another interesting thing with styrene records is, beginning with early ‘70s records, if you hold one up to a bright light, you can see through it. The color is a dark red. Apparently, the companies began using less material, because they also seemed lighter. Fascinating stuff!
Monarch and Allied pressed "see-through" styrene 45's as early as 1967, the Columbia Pitman pressing plant as far back as 1969. But Columbia Terre Haute's styrenes didn't get "see-through" until about 1971.
@@wmbrown6 Pretty cool. I never noticed that. I knew you couldn’t see through the earlier Columbia, but I never noticed the Monarch and Allied. I know Monarchs have the M in a circle and a triangle before the matrix number, but how can you tell an Allied? I have to check them out now.😂
@@gns423 - Numbers etched in the deadwax that, from 1962 to 1971, began with X-; from then to about 1976, K-; and thereafter, R-.
@@wmbrown6 cool thanks
Thank you for doing this video. I did not realize this, and I have recorded several records across the years, and also done a radio show for 6 years in the 80s. -interesting information.
I love 78s. Shellac is awesome.
Played on a proper player they can sound absolutely gorgeous
I use a AT 140XP and Shure M78S cart with TC-778 preamp
MCA in the mid 70s seemed to press a lot of Elton's stuff on styrene. A few of Geffen (WB) were pressed by Capitol.
All of my EJ singles are vinyl. MCA had their own pressing plants and I can’t recall any styrene MCA 45’s
@@HitsTownUSA
Could be the mix was just "light". Some just seen to feel different. Kinda hard to describe.
@@HitsTownUSA - Steve Hoffman has judged MCA's two pressing plants (in Gloversville, NY and Pinckneyville, IL) among THE worst in terms of vinyl surface noise during the 1970's. They, Capitol and RCA all tended to turn out way off-center pressings. But that's for another examination.
In the 1980's, though, some MCA 45's were pressed in styrene by PRC Recording Co. in Richmond, IN. MCA ceased to use Monarch for their pressing needs about two years before they launched the MCA Records label; only Kapp and Uni product were turned out by Monarch, nothing on Decca, Coral or (pre-1970) Brunswick.
I had Glen Fry's single from Beverly Hill soundtrack on styrene. Olivia Newton-John Physical was on both@@HitsTownUSA
I Started Collecting 45's In Middle 80's. Always Sound Good.
Great video Joe. Learned a lot. When it comes to the debate of CD vs vinyl sound quality, I will say this. You can make a CD sound like a record (warm and fuzzy) but you can`t make vinyl sound like a CD with it's dynamic range and clarity. If it's not there, it's not there. Sound quality goes to the CD. The warm and fuzzies go to vinyl.
Being from the 60's, we collected RECORDS. "Vinyl" was something only DJ's would throw out there to be hip. Remember that??
I agreed somewhat... Records can be bright and have big dynamic range... Most consumer grade carts can't play them, though. High end record playing equipment can put a CD to shame.
@@EzeeLinux Thanks for replying Joe. Good point. But do remember that the music pressed onto vinyl must be compressed to fit all that music information into those tiny grooves. CD's not so much.
@@Extremesam43 No, it doesn't... It's compressed to be loud on average players. You can get a lot of dynamics in those grooves. Many 12 inch promo singles that went out to radio sound much, much better than their CD counterparts. You have to have the equipment to hear it, though. Most folks don't. :)
Keep up the good work Joe. I also liked the video on the cartridge comparison. I learned the difference between the bonded and nude stylus. Makes sense.
@@EzeeLinux and especially 45rpms.
Hey man, I think you host a FM too, right? I can't find it anywhere.
I do an evening show. b999fm.com
I’ve wondered about this for awhile. Thanks
Maybe this explains a problem I am having. I cleaned a bunch of 45s with an enzyme record cleaner I use on my LPs and they all sound TERRIBLE! Is this because the polystyrene was ruined by my cleaning process? Or also I am using a Shibata stylus, so that could be too.
If they came up sounding bad after cleaning then they probably need a more thorough rinsing. I don;' think the cleaner damaged anything but a lot of those don't come off easily... Rinse them with water and dry them quickly... If you're tap water is hard then use distilled water. :)
I was surprised when RCA made 45 singles for their Gold Standard series in the late 1970s thru the 1980s on styrene, but mostly using a rounded edge near the label. And those atrocious Bell and Golden Records injection molding pressings using painted labels that came off too fast! It was rare when Columbia & Epic pressed on vinyl without the disc being a promo. Colored styrene was hard to find unless you saw the record through light.
Sir, you have hit head of the
nail.
Great video. Don't think you mentioned it, but one test for styrene that I use is to gently flick the edge of a 45 with my fingernail and listen to the resulting sound; a styrene record will produce a "dink" sound whereas vinyl will produce a "thunk". As an aside, I have a local record store here in LA that has a sign inside the store requesting that customers not call records "vinyls"; can't stand that term myself.
Yes, thumping it works, and the weight. Some people believe holding it to the light trick and look for red, but it is not foolproof. I have some styrene 45's that are not translucent at all.
The other foolproof method is to see if you can snap it in half. 🤣
Steve Hoffman also hates the term "vinyls," though even RCA Victor, in some of their journals, used that term to describe LP's and 45's back in the '50's.
I hate the term vinyls too!
I'm really glad I watched this video Joe. I just inherited my parents' record collection and some of the 45s mum gave me go right back to 1959. I'll have to go through them and see which ones are polystyrene now. I'm running a VM540ML on my turntable and was going to play them all on that, not knowing the problems associated with styrene and microline.
I have the stock XP3 cart I got with my LP140XP but it isn't terribly exciting. Looks like I might have to pick up a VM95EN for the styrene 45s.
VM540ML plays much better than 95-series. I'm not sure there is any issue with the microline or shibata stylus
I put a comment to this video describing the pressure effect which is for conical type of stylus is more significant.
Love vinyl. Great video. Just ordered 7inch from 80s from UK.
Thanks Joe! I see you are my go to guy in this category as well!:-)....I love 45's myself and probably enjoy them more than the LP's. Question? I have a 45 that I think might be very rare, but maybe it's not. I'll listen to your opinion. The 45 is by Johnny Rivers, called "Rewind" and it's the "B " side to his hit "Baby I Need Your Lovin' (I believe) came out on the Liberty label I think in 1966 or 1967. Anyway it's partitioned off like an LP with 6 or 7 mini snippets of songs that comprise his LP called "Rewind" The reason why this 45 made an impression on me, is that all the tunes are written by Jimmy Webb, and this immediately forged my interest in this legendary tunesmith as I only thought he wrote some hit tunes for Glen Campbell. I have never come across another 45 like this before. Thoughts? thanks again for the education on the ingredients of 45's!!! Bruce
Sounds like a promo for the album... I've seen a few like that. Yes, it's most likely quite rare. There is a Pink Floyd 45 that has 4 songs from "Dark Side Of The Moon" nicely edited for play on the radio... I don't have it but a friend does. I used to have a bunch of weird records like that from radio stations but I gave them away years ago... I only started collecting again about 10 years ago. :)
@@EzeeLinux Great , all right thanks. Do not think it was a promo but I'll check. Wasn't aware of that Pink Floyd single being edited that way. Off topic, when you were a DJ you were doing Top 40? Wow, what a great gig man!! Were you able to edit the playlist a bit?. You ought to do a video of this time in your life no?!! Any books you can recommend that also talk about how these 45's were constructed? The vast majority of my collection is 60's pop and country.
@@Tunz909 I have a bunch of arichecks right here on the channel. I still work in radio. b999fm.com I've worked a lot of formats through the years but mostly Oldies and Country and I was in management for about ten years (yawn). There are no books that I could find that really get into the engineering side of pressing 45s... I know what I know from talking to engineers, record producers and other collectors but I am not an expert.
@@EzeeLinux Thanks Joe for sending me the link!! Yes you have that "Radio Voice" for sure! You sound great! Where do I send my requests?:-)
I want my daddy's records!
You tell them that!!!
I bought a record, looking excellent and having distorted sound. Could it be, that it is styrene and someone applied the wood glue method to let it look better, than it sounds?
Great video! I didn't even know that they made records from much other than vinyl or shallac
Joe, Do you remember a record
label called Spring?
which distributed by Polydor?
Joe Simon and Millie Jackson Garland Green The fatback band were all on there in the 1970 and early 80
I could tell, just by appearance, that it's the one on the right!
:)
Great video! Fortunately, styrene was a US thing exclusively. It's easy to stay away from styrene records just by buying 7" singles from anywhere but the States.
It's not evil if you are careful. Proper turntable setup goes a long way... :)
For the most part, styrene center labels used 60 or 70 lb. C1S (coated one side) label litho stock, with an adhesive slapped on the back which, when applied to the record, glued it on. Such labels were designated "Heat Seal." 45 labels were printed "24 up" on 19" x 25" paper stock, then cut up into four "6 up" sheets. Columbia, Bestway and Shelley Products all had a label trim of 3.5"; Monarch and Allied had it 3.5625"; and PRC's was 3.625".
Vinyl labels were designated as "Compression"; label paper stock was all over the place, ranging from 60 or 70 lb. Kromekote C1S [cast-coated] up to the 1970's (60 lb. was also used on some styrene labels), to 60, 70 or 80 lb. C1S Litho, to 60, 70 or 80 lb. C2S Gloss, to 70 or 80 lb. Dull Coated, to 70 or 80 lb. Matte Coated, to uncoated paper stock of 70 or 80 lb. that was either characterized as Smooth or Offset. Such labels shrunk by about 0.5 - 0.7 percent when pressed onto the record.
For the most part, styrene labels that were meant for 45's did not have any center holes drilled onto them. Columbia had this range of die-cut center holes for styrene labels (for 7" 33⅓ RPM promo product) as follows:
R - 0.339" = 8.611mm (on a Bridgeport pressing from 1961)
11/32 - 0.34375" = 8.731mm
S - 0.348" = 8.839mm
T - 0.358" = 9.093mm (on a Terre Haute pressing from 1981)
When Pitman began pressing styrene in 1964, 7" 33⅓ RPM label center holes were the same 0.28125" (7.144mm) or 0.281" (K, = 7.137mm) as used for LP die-cut center holes by Columbia then; not until 1965 did they use 0.34375" or 0.348" holes. Bestway hewed more to the 0.34375" size.
Shelley Products usually used L - 0.290" = 7.366mm or M - 0.295" = 7.493mm drills, though I saw one from 1967 where the hole measured 0.302" (N, = 7.671mm).
PRC's range of die-cut center holes for styrene 7" 33⅓ RPM's was:
3/8 - 0.375" = 9.525mm
V - 0.377" = 9.576mm
W - 0.386" = 9.804mm
X - 0.397" = 10.084mm
(0.386" was also used in 1966-67 by Columbia Santa Maria; by late '67, however, they went with 0.34375".)
wow. that must have been your specialty? excellent info. is this merely casual knowledge, or was that your profession?
@@gregaiken1725 - I apprenticed to a printer on and off for a few years, and also have studied various paper weights both from that plus working in a field of investigation. And had access to the archives of one of the major record companies. Technically, it could be called a "hobby," but it seems I've accumulated more knowledge on that than a lot of those in the industry itself.
Excellent Video Nice one Joe
Vinyl, Unbreakable and similar terms were printed on jackets and sleeves when record companies abandoned 78 rpm shellac. The rise under the label was on Columbia’s 33+1/3 and RCA’s 45 rpm records from the start. Playing stacks of records was a thing going back to 78s. Otherwise I’m in basic agreement on this subject. But, haven’t you noticed that polystyrene gets hard and brittle over time? Now old CDs are showing degradation of the plastic. Also, I wonder how well lighter records would work with vintage turntables and jukeboxes.
I am a 45 RPM records collector since the early 80's. At that time I did not know the difference thus some of those called styrene (Columbia, RCA, Chrysallis, A&M) got wear with plays. My Warner Bros, Motown, MCA sound like new 40 years later. In summary, I do hate styrene. Do you know that in Canada all labels were pressed on vinyl? 100% of my MCA, Motown, Atlantic, Capitol, Warner Bros are all vinyl, not styrene. It is interesting to note that most promos on all those companies were pressed on styrene, except A&M which surprisingly pressed their regular commercial records on styrene, on the contrary, their promos were ALL on high quality durable vinyl.
Great explanation
In the 1970’s they put records on back of cereal boxes. The Osmonds, Jackson’s and Bobby Sherman ect. What was that plastic made of?
I wasn’t too interested in music then, but my sisters were of the age that Tigerbeat and stories of the private lives of the teeny boppers was a big deal.
I do remember listening to the free records cut off the box, and thinking they sounded bad.
Who knows? LOL. They also had sound sheets in magazines too. They all sounded band but you could hear what was on them and that was good enough to be a gimmick.
@@EzeeLinux in spite of the poor quality, there are probably people that collect these. Sometimes the things that were never meant to be saved can become quite valuable to collectors.
So was the polystyrene always black, and only vinyl in other colors? Could a ten or twelve inch have been injection molded?
I have a couple of colored styrene 45s... As for styrene 10 and 12 inchers, I don't know. I would assume it was tried. :)
@@EzeeLinux
Thanks! 🙂
i remember 45's cracking before i even got one home then i learned that they started making them from poly strene
You are right for turntable is without speakers and the record player has speakers and there is a difference ma'am for some don't know the difference
I know the long term quality is better with vinyl but for me as far as looks go - a well kept or mint polystyrene just looks better, labels are bigger and more colorful
Conical stylusus at a really low grracking weight will preserve styrenes better Some high end garage and beat group 45's were only pressed on styrenes so watch the weight.
The styrene 45s that I have (bought used) always sound terrible. I have some old Decca LPs with the black labels that are also styrene. For some reason the styrene LPs seem to hold up better than the 45s.
I think one of the very first videos that I watched on youtube (over ten years ago) was one you did about a Realistic cassette deck. Since cassettes are making sort of a comeback, you should start doing cassette videos again.
I've been lucky with styrene. Most I have come across are in good enough condition to play and enjoy.I don't fool with tape decks much anymore. I don't even have one hooked up to a big stereo, just a boombox I can play a tape on if I want to. That was sort of a mid-life crisis thing... LOL
@@EzeeLinux What happened to your Onkyo TA-W100?
@@HamtaroEL All of the tape decks got sold off or given away some years ago... I still have my Teac and a boombox that can play tapes. :)
@@EzeeLinux I'm betting the Teac and the Sony I remembered in your previous videos 13 years ago
@@EzeeLinux I used to enjoy tapes on a Realistic SCT 74 deck in mid 00's after turning CD hate
I have the Jimmy Dean original 45 "Big Bad John" with the original "helluva man" still intact.
Then there's vinyl vs Shellac for 78s(technically not necessarily 78 RPM, might be 78.26 or 80+ RPMs) and then there's the phono vs gramophone! The award show is called the Grammys for a reason!
The Anadialog UA-cam channel presented a video called “Injection-molding green LP records: Vinyl's farewell?” in September of 2023.
Anyone have an opinion of this new injection album printing process?
I saw that video. It was unclear what material those records would be made of. Poly is brittle and a 12 inch record would end up being quite fragile and prone to cracking. We shall see if this actually takes hold or not.
Hi all,
Are their date ranges when styrene was more common?
1951 through the late 1980's. Pretty much the entire run for most collectible 45's... :)
@@EzeeLinux - 1991, actually. In November of that year, Sony Music (ex CBS Records) closed their Carrollton, GA pressing plant, the last they owned that pressed vinyl LP's and styrene 45's. They then went for the next several years to the MCA plant in Gloversville, NY. With Carrollton's closure, the specs for 45 styrene labels - 3.75" bleed and centering for 3.5" trim labels - went with them. PRC was sold to Cinram in 1990, Shelley Products closed in 1985 (and Bestway around 1986), and the last styrene Allied 45's came out in 1989.
vinyl 7” records sounds better than styrene, styrene records wear out faster, too much tracking force will destroy a styrene record in a few plays, vinyl records are much easier to grade visually, styrene records will sometimes have to be played to determine the quality (I have a stack of excellent to near mint styrene records that play with too much hiss and distortion to consider keeping or selling). However, styrene records will sound absolutely fine if they were well cared for.
With the vinyl records making a comeback and people saying stuff like “vinyl sounds better than CD” A good way to look at styrene 45’s is they are basically a novelty pressing made when the record companies could press them quickly and cheaper than vinyl pressings. If you are lucky enough to get a perfect sounding styrene 45 then that’s great, but nobody can expect that from every single one they get, you need to expect random hiss noises at the start or in the middle of the record and occasional distortion.
Polystyrene is actually a quieter playing surface than vinyl. They often sound better. I am super careful with turntable setup and none of my styrene 45's have ever shown any wear from me playing them. But, you're right in saying that they will degrade quickly if played with an old needle or too much VTF. :)
2 Fool proof way of checking: 1) weight. 2) thump it; Styrene rings like a bell and vinyl thumps.
Some people believe holding it to the light works, but it's not foolproof. Most of the time Polystyrene will appear red, but not always. Polystyrene was not always exactly the same composition. I have 2 such titles from Laurie Records and Smash Records that are styrene and are not translucent at all.
Crosleys do not track at 9 grams. They track at 6 tops which was normal until magnetic cartridges came out in the 70s.
Magnetic carts have been around since the 1930's... 6 grams may have been the standard at one time for ceramic carts but it was too heavy. Those Crosley crappers have sapphire styli and some do indeed track as high as 9 grams when the arm isn't calibrated correctly. Sapphire wars out after about 20 hours of play... They're groove chewing junk. Pernod. :)
I’m not trying to defend Crosleys. But the fact is that they are no worse than the cheap turntables used by most people in the early parts of the LP era. Everybody who is actually weighed a Crosley cartridge, has clocked it in anywhere between 5 and 6 g.
When I say magnetic cartridges have only been around since the 1970s. The fact is that they were only really commercially available at a reasonable price around that time. Phonograph preamps are a newish invention. Magnetic cartridges are very light and do not put out the sound output required therefore they must be pre-amplified to get the proper dynamics.
I’m not trying to defend these cheap record players, but at the same time you can establish the superiority of a better quality turntable without telling untruths about cheap turntables available today.
Oh, and one more thing. When the microgroove records of both Columbia and RCA were first manufactured, the tracking force specification was between five and six grams. This was the least pressure they could use for the cartridges of the day while still giving out the best sound quality possible.
Records all the way up until the end of the mainstream LP era were manufactured to accept a 6 g cartridge.
Only a handful of modern record records today would not be suitable for that such as dance records with very heavy bass. This is because those records are mostly bought by DJs, who have high-end turntables with low cartridge weight.
Yes 5 grams will wear your records faster than 3 grams. But those cheap turntables don’t need artificial bad press.
@@paulblackman8159 Totally agree. While Crosley Cruisers aren't exactly good, anybody who says they "track at 9 grams" are just talking out their ass. The RokBlok is far worse than any Crosley imo, those you truly can call groove chewers if you've seen Techmoan's video.
Thanks!!
Did you folks ever think why conical stylus life-cycle is 200-300 h and micro-line/shibata is 800-1000 h? ML/SH provides way better contact so roughly at the same tracking force ML/SH type of stylus makes MUCH less pressure. So using ML/SH is good for a record no matter what material (vinyl or styrene) it is made of. Obviously conical stylus will wear out your record sooner.
Where did you hear that conical styli wear out in 200 hours? That's BS. They will last as long as 1000 hours if cared for properly. Also,, what I said about advanced shapes damaging styrene comes from real-world experience. All the hype about perfect groove contact with MicroLine and Shibata assumes a perfect alignment and doesn't take into account the characteristics of polystyrene. There's a lot of audiophile snake oil in what Millennial-run marketing departments publish these days.
I always wondered why many of my 45’s were lighter and cracked easier. Now I know! I assumed they were made out of some type of plastic.
Very interesting
Thank you I didn't know
Only encountered styrene with American issues; never in Canada or Europe.
Hated, hated HATED them. Hard and glassy, with plenty of shriek, rattle and squawk and wore out in no time no matter how you babied them. Depended on the distributor, so I always preferred vinyl versions or European issues. The WORST offenders were Polygram (Mercury, Vertigo etc.) you can tell instantly by simply tapping them lightly on the edge; vinyl is like butter, styrene is brittle and hard with a kind of ‘ring’. Got good and sick and tired of paying premium prices for vintage styrene; I didn’t mind forking out a dime or quarter at the ol’ Goodwill because they were already shot usually, so they went into the ‘B’ stacks with their own cheap cartridge. ‘Fun’ records - who cared what they sounded like. $25, though, hurt.
PolyGram, over the years, used the following plants that handled styrene:
- Columbia (Pitman, NJ - 56; Terre Haute, IN - 73; Santa Maria, CA - 25; after 1987, Carrollton, GA - 57)
- Bestway Products (Mountainside, NJ - 19)
- Shelley Products (Huntington Station, NY - 54)
- PRC (Richmond, IN - 72)
- Monarch Record Mfg. Co. (24; until about 1979-80, after which they switched to vinyl for 45's)
- Allied Record Co. (22)
- RCA (Indianapolis, IN - 70; from the early to mid-1980's up to the point the plant closed in 1987)
I much preferred Columbia pressings, and basically those from Pitman.
The polystyrene records got almost immediate cue burn.
We used to get away with it using Stanton 680's with elliptical styli on the air but all it would take is one jock to rip that record backwards just this much too hard and then it was over. I don't "cue" anything these days. No need. :)
@@EzeeLinux When I used to dub record to tape, I let the pause button out as soon as stylus merged out of lead groove into the main grooves cluster
Yeah i Wanna Listen the new Saint Pepsi s Singles on this Vynil...
13:11 -- "QUIEX"??
There are other materials also shellac was also used.
For 78's only and that was only until the late 1940's.
@@EzeeLinux good, thanks! I used to have a large collection of 78's . I only have two records now. Some of your cartridges you had on here had a stylus for 78 records. I think Shure still has them. Maybe old new stock. I would like to see someone do a video on 45 only record players, my oldest sister had one.
@@ronb6182 Check out Chris Cuff's channel... He works on old RCA 45 players. :)
id guess, if one compared the total qty of vinyl discs, to qty of discs made from other materials... would probably be +90% vinyl... hence why this generalization is used.
I think it's easy to say that well over 50 % of the 45's pressed in the US were made of styrene. There were very few styrene LP's, though. I think the name comes mainly from LP's. :)
My 45's are made of steel. Colt type
Polydor 45s were the same way.
the easiest way to tell Vinyl from Polystyrene. is to hold it in front of a bright light like a flashlight you cant see light through Vinyl but can see light passing through Polystyrene.
Not always.... A few formulations of vinyl are translucent like Quiex II.
It's vinyl, not vinyls!
11:30 The non-slip edge around the label of Capitol Records issues was *NOT* a gimmick! It was *NOT* devised by Capitol either. In fact it was devised by Capitol's *PARENT* company, *EMI(The Gramophone Co.) Ltd, Hayes Middlesex England* and was adopted by all the British record companies, as well as EMI's divisions around the world(Capitol was not a "division", Capitol had a much lower status as a mere subsidiary, which is akin to being the *infant toddler* in a family).
Nobody cares about a gimmicky ridge, nor which piece of some amorphous entertainment conglomerate came up with it.
Polystyrene 45's suck. They're cheaper to produce than real vinyl records and they don't last. After 20-25 plays, they sound "staticy" and "fuzzy." Hold a styrene 45 up to light & you can see through it. Too many record companies used styrene in the '80s.
And the retail price was about ⅓ of a 12" album, too expensive for this.
CAN'T BUY FREE LOVE by APOLOGETIX a great Beatles parody