The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

Yes you can do it, the only difficulty is finding a sapphire stylus that will fit. If it’s a bit loose, stuff the gap with a tiny amount of cotton wool and it will be ok for testing. Acetates are also thinner than vinyl dubs, so you need to adjust the weight and possibly the proximity of the stylus ...

So an acquaintance of mine, who visited Tubby's studio to work with him, remembered seeing a Presto lathe in the corner of the room. This video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhLfddqlh3c (0:39) shows a tantalising glimpse of what looks like a Presto Type 125-A microscope (see: https://archive.org/d...

Sadly, most of the younger people there can not operate the equipment anymore. If you listen to the actual stuff that comes from jamaica, sound quality is very often ultra terrible, bad recorded and mixed... only the big artists have good sound engineers. they listen to the music everywhere, in the...

when i was there around 1998 there where at least: dynamic sounds: vms70 in bad shape but workable they had a 2nd VMS70 in a different room sort of hidden from the main room. I believe one of the VMS is still there with some pressing gear A mastering engineer by the name of Geovanni Simpson from Dy...

Looks like a great project! I can't help thinking that rather than make it open-ended, it would maybe be better to ask specific questions, each one in a new thread and then people can pitch in with what they know. For example, I just picked up a box of NOS Presto master lacquers. I don't know when t...

Thanks Dub Studio, I've just ordered a dauber bottle to try your method! Just to clarify - what detergent are you using to add to the Isopropyl? Is this washing up liquid? p.s. are you in Bristol, UK? Or a different Bristol?! Yeah use a touch of the old Fairy, but I guess you could use anything tha...

andybee wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 02, 2023 1:23 pm

after 50 years, you should replace this motors & pitch computer by something better...

Could the Maxon be that old?

What about the pickup stylus for the proposed 6-mil groove? 2.5-mil tip conical? Wouldn't the traditional shellac-era coarse groove be cut with a cutting stylus possessing a ~ 110-degree included angle (rather than 88.4 or so?)...? (...not questioning the proposed 3-mils' depth, per se, but the ang...

Thanks for the explanation, I am not questioning the value of what you are saying or the validity of modding time constants per se. I am sure plenty of people will find that information useful, and clearly this would be standard procedure when setting up a lathe for this task permanently. But the OP...

Hi Mushroom, welcome!

Fractional speed cutting ideally would include a customized recording network with adjusted time constants for proper decoding on playback at speed. 1/2-speed-capable cutting amps with built-in RIAA, por ejemplo. have this extra feature. Is that just a fancy way of saying "EQ it a bit"? In any case...

Perhaps some sort of flywheel might help. Motor noise is usually caused by cogging, and a flywheel is essentially a form of low-pass filter. The mass of the wheel increases the inertia of the motor, which filters out sudden changes in speed (like cogging). The only drawback with this method is that ...

I see no reason why this can't be done. If the mastering engineer doesn't have a 78rpm turntable, you can always send in a sample-rate-converted master and have it cut at 45rpm. Assuming the audio is mono, it will come out mono, but even if it is stereo, it's easy to centre it without audio loss. Va...

I don't clean discs, instead I use Isopropyl alcohol with a small amount of detergent as a lubricant and leave it on the disc. The alcohol spreads the detergent very thinly and evenly and then evaporates almost instantly so you can get cutting straight away. One tiny drop in every 100ml is all you n...

When I first heard of King Tubby, I assumed he was fat. After looking at his pictures, I realized he's too slim to have been called Tubby, as a nickname, and yet he wasn't so svelte that it made sense as a form of sarcasm, either. I'm sure it was foisted on him by people who don't even like dub. 'T...

Dear Double-plus UnCool, So, what are your 'cold, hard facts' about the unsolved murder Well, one cold hard fact is that Jamaica is a country where poverty and inequality are rife, and the murder rate is one of the highest in the world. That’s 50 out of every 100,000 people, and 10 times higher tha...

Perhaps this is an XY problem.. it's worth bearing in mind that some styluses are more prone to getting BUE than others, making the process of finding the perfect angle harder to pin down. Other factors can be used to remedy this, and in so doing the angle becomes less of an issue. It's also worth b...

There are two bolts on the underside of the suspension assembly that run up into the brass nut of the leadsrew. You can undo them slightly and adjust the position of the assembly there.

flozki wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 03, 2023 5:08 pm

i think he is in front of a coil winder.
but looks great.

He used to make his own transformers apparently, so perhaps that's it?

He's sat there fixing or cannibalizing overheads, innit? https://i.scdn.co/image/ee08962ddb9c7f27a3ad5ed6052aa8deef521331 I found a photo online of Mr. Ruddock making the hand-sign of Practicus - hopefully mocking Ras Tafari for doing that, but, since O. R. was reportedly murdered, it's likely that...