Great photo of Doug Sax/Mastering Lab Scully lathe

[Deke Dickerson]

I just found a record yesterday at a garage sale, "The Missing Linc--Lincoln Mayorga Recorded Live From The Studio To The Master Disc." When I flipped the album cover over, wow--a full 12-inch sized color photo of the Doug and Sherwood Sax/Mastering Lab Scully Lathe! Absolutely beautiful. I thought it would be a good thing to add to the photo archives here.

Deke

[W.B.]

Very interesting. That looks like a circa 1950-53 variant of the Scully (just what model number it was still escapes me - it was certainly pre-601). As far as the buttons go, through various pics I've seen of other models of this type I can gauge the functions thus:
Panel at far left - RECORDER - LIFT (top button), FEED (bottom button)
Panel at right - Far left column, from top: MOTOR (light), START, STOP
First two groups of buttons: FEED - OUT / IN
Next two groups of buttons: LEAD-OUT SPIRALS - 45 FINISHING / 4 PITCH ("45 Finishing" was apparently Scully's term for 2 pitch)
Following two groups of buttons: SPIRALS - FAST / SLOW
Last two groups of buttons: LEAD-IN SPIRALS - FAST / SLOW
The "Lead-In Spirals" and "Spirals," pre-1972, were set at 7.625 lpi ("8 pitch") and 32.3125 lpi ("32 pitch"), respectively; after 1972 the "Fast" was modified to 14.729167 lpi ("15 pitch"). "Spirals" were what were used at other studios for catch grooves that were cut after the lead-out spiral and before reaching the concentric locked groove.
The Mastering Lab only used the 4 pitch lead-out spiral (spaced around ~3.92 lpi) on their lacquers, never the "45 finishing" which would have been ~2.04 lpi on this set.
It should be noted that noted New Jersey-based jazz engineer Rudy Van Gelder had another Scully of this type of model in his studio that ran for years, only the "45 finishing" in his case ranged between 1.83 and 1.92 lpi and the "4 pitch" ranged 3.4825 - 3.69 lpi. Apparently, until 1955 or so Scully seemed to veer in terms of how the 2- and 4-pitch lead-outs were spaced, not until after was the 2-pitch standardized at ~2.14 lpi and the 4-pitch at ~4.17 lpi.
It also looks like this was before Mr. Sax revamped his mastering outfit to have a "master" (TML-M) / "slave" (TML-S) setup, not unlike what Capitol used with their F/G, H/J, A/B, P/T and W/X systems.

[leo gonzalez]

thanks deke for this one.

the other thing is that it looks like its not driven by belts. there is an oil port on the front underneath the turntable.

might have been driven by a lyrec or a gear motor.

leo


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ejemmons]

Just saw this unit at a storage facility in Glendale, CA. It is a worm drive with a totally lovely oil bearing. More interesting, I heard the record onsite just after it'd been pressed, actually there to hear the 'new' mastering Lab crossovers.
Sold me on direct to disc!!!

[EmAtChapterV]

If it's in storage, I wonder who owns it now?

Also EJ Emmons - I enjoyed watching the videos of your Scully lathe in action. I'd love to see more posted, especially the variable pitch working on very dynamic music.