Olson cutting head info

[basplin]

There's not much info about these heads online, and what little there is comes in bits on this forum. Does anyone know the history behind these? Who made them, years produced, etc.? It seems like Fairchild used (copied? bought? stole??) the design for some of their mono heads at one point, which adds to my intrigue.

[basplin]

boop.

[grooveguy]

My go-to mono head is the Olson from Fairchild. I obtained on on a Fairchild 539G recorder and rewound its 500-ohm coil to match low-Z, solid-state amplifiers. The Olson replaced a venerable Presto 1D, and I've never looked back. I'm particularly impressed with the amount of high-energy, high-frequency material I get on cuts since I switched. The Presto did a good job of the "air" in music, but it took the Olson to really get those pop-vocal sibilants, snares, etc. into the groove. I do know that the head was a 'shared' design, whether by hook or by crook, but was made legitimately by Fairchild and also by Lipps Co. in L.A. during the early '50s. One might think that the 'Olson' in the name might refer to Harry Olson, RCA's top microphone and speaker engineer in the infancy of High Fidelity, but I have not been able to verify this. I have never found a write-up on this head or a description in any of the anthologies.

[basplin]

Hey grooveguy,
This is great information - thanks so much for sharing. Very interesting about the joint production with Fairchild and Lipps, and makes sense why we see these heads with different "looks". Mine is the typical Olson black, but without the 'OLSON' lettering on the front. I love yours with the red wrinkle paint! I had always assumed that the Olson referred to Harry Olson of RCA, but Len Horowitz seemed to think that this was not the case, as anything Harry was involved with designing would have been branded 'RCA'... a good point. Still, odd that not much has been written about it.

I searched this forum for other references of 'Lipps' and came across a quite old post by you... not sure how I missed this before. You wrote that Olson heads are mentioned in Bob Morrison's book, "Disk Recording 1930-1960"... does it have any more information? I'll try to keep an eye out for Lipps literature, perhaps this was mentioned/displayed in a product brochure.

I have to agree with you about the sound of these heads. Mine also replaced a Presto 1C - and a good sounding one - and I noticed that the Olson has so much more high frequency information. The sound is just so crisp and clear in comparison. Mine is still wound with (I assume) the original 500 ohm coil, so I just used a beefy line transformer to run this from my 8 ohm amp tap. Did you do the rewinding yourself?

[tragwag]

I really dig my Olson head too!
My guess is they were made by this Olson audio brand:

[grooveguy]

Ah, you probably weren't born yet when THAT Olson was doing a rip-roaring mail order business. They put out a newspaper-type flyer every couple of months in the '50s and early '60s, with lots of electronics bargains... speakers, microphones, components... and even their own private-branded items like that mic mixer. But the Olson cutterhead predated that firm, and the bargain-basement Olson never manufactured anything of their own; most of their branded products were from Japan. I'm fairly certain that Fairchild engineered the Olson head, and maybe there was even an Olson on their staff that it was named after.

At some point I was given a Fairchild "Miller" cutterhead, a mid-'50s design and a step up from the Olson. Mine was missing parts, but I kept it... it's still around here somewhere. At an AES convention in L.A., sometime in the '70s, I spoke with George Alexandrovich, a head honcho at Fairchild (they had a booth at the show), asking him about the Miller head. I didn't think to bring up the Olson one, since it was working well for me. All those people are gone now, so we'll have to depend on some other old timer who may know the Olson derivation.

[tragwag]

Ah, you probably weren't born yet when THAT Olson was doing a rip-roaring mail order business. They put out a newspaper-type flyer every couple of months in the '50s and early '60s, with lots of electronics bargains... speakers, microphones, components... and even their own private-branded items like that mic mixer. But the Olson cutterhead predated that firm, and the bargain-basement Olson never manufactured anything of their own; most of their branded products were from Japan. I'm fairly certain that Fairchild engineered the Olson head, and maybe there was even an Olson on their staff that it was named after.

At some point I was given a Fairchild "Miller" cutterhead, a mid-'50s design and a step up from the Olson. Mine was missing parts, but I kept it... it's still around here somewhere. At an AES convention in L.A., sometime in the '70s, I spoke with George Alexandrovich, a head honcho at Fairchild (they had a booth at the show), asking him about the Miller head. I didn't think to bring up the Olson one, since it was working well for me. All those people are gone now, so we'll have to depend on some other old timer who may know the Olson derivation.

oh cool! thanks for sharing that - I love hearing this stuff!

[sameal]

Poking around the webbernet looking for xophonic specs I found this early stereo book that mentions an olson from RCA.

I just skimmed it down to the xophonic blurb, which was terribly vague. But maybe theres some olson info in there

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Technology/Gernsback/Gernsback-The-Story-Of-Stereo-1960-Sunier.pdf

[basplin]

They're probably referring to Harry Olson, Director of Acoustic Research at RCA. My first thought was that this is the "Olson" that the head was named after, but I have yet to come across anything out there that supports this.

Thanks for the share!

[grooveguy]

SAMEAL: Love your audio electronics YouTube channel, especially the Webster cutterhead rebuild. Great job! I have several of those kicking around, and following your inspiration (if I get some time!) might well rebuild them. Thanks!

BASPLIN: I thought of RCA's Harry Olson too, but can't find any documentation that associates him with cutterheads. Ribbon mics and loudspeakers, definitely, but still looking for history on that head.

[piaptk]

I couldn't figure out how to post a photo here (there is a reason I spend so much time with 1940s tech) BUT, I texted Jacob Horowitz and he and Len pulled this out of their paperwork archive which will answer a lot of your questions. They believe that the Olson came first and then the design was sold to Fairchild who put those huge damper poles and changed it to that horrible pot metal stylus holder design that always breaks off. The Olson is Len's favorite mono head. I've got a couple of them and they sound great.

It was NOT Harry Olson, it was C.V. Olson according to this paperwork.

Anyway, here is the promo/spec sheet that Len and Jacob Provided (feel free to repost as a viewable photo if you want):

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/o464f6i5ozv2z17y1gvmw/ACkm7w1HpokknY_VFQzMB60?rlkey=dikkmuhsta5pkz47z99p6f7si&st=yfb72r9l&dl=0

[basplin]

Hey Mike, this is exactly what I was looking for - thanks so much for sharing this!

[grooveguy]

Good sleuthing, piaptk; should have known that Len and Jacob would have documentation on this.

Fairchild's 'Olson' head was their model 543A. It was also manufactured in L.A. by Eddie Lipps, who later crafted tape recording and duplicating heads. Here's my Olson on a Rek-O-Kut 16" overhead:

Head Suction Detail.jpg

That head you described, with the big clunky damper tubes and brittle stylus holder, was the Fairchild 541A, nowhere the equal of the later Olson design. Here's a 541A that I refurbished not long ago, a job that turned out to be disappointing because that head just couldn't be made to sound good. It had a distinct resonance in the upper midrange, and a sharp cutoff somewhere near 5kHz. But it could sure modulate a wide-groove transcription or 78 rpm record, doubtless because the stylus was extended so far below its lateral pivot point.

100_0899.JPG

(By the way, adding photos inline is a simple matter, but one I have to re-learn every time I try it. First select the Full Editor and Preview mode and simply drag the photo into the window you're typing into. A box will pop-up below, asking how you want to show the picture. Just put your cursor where you want the photo and then click the 'inline' option.)

[piaptk]

I've got several of the 541a's and when they are nice, they are nice! But then again, like all head models, when they are bad, they are bad! haha. I've had 541as that sounded better than a standard Presto 1d. And some that sounded like trash. Had a guy come to lathe cut camp to buy a 6n and we did a shoot out between a 541 and 2 different nice Presto 1ds and he chose the 541.

[sameal]

SAMEAL: Love your audio electronics YouTube channel, especially the Webster cutterhead rebuild. Great job! I have several of those kicking around, and following your inspiration (if I get some time!) might well rebuild them. Thanks!

Thanks! Soulbear helped me with that one a lot. The hardest part is getting it to all fit in the case. I'm actually cutting the "I" pieces to fit over the two magnets but still close the loop and get the case back together. But even without the cover plate it makes the webster at least useable.

I'm playing with damper materials and coil winding on and off, but i took a detour in weird mechanical delays and need to circle back

[New2Lathe]

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[grooveguy]

Whose published this sheet? Assuming that it dates from the early 1950s, say 1953, take a look at what that head would cost today. Wow!

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