Other Stuff

Gary Sisco · August-31st-2003, 09:31 AM

So, yesterday I was helping trash all the sundry stuff that's collected in my folks garage and room over it for the past more than 35 years, because they're moving, and one of the things I came across, to my amazement, was one of the boxes of stuff that was shipped home when I got out of the service, 27 years ago.

And one of the things in the box was another, smaller box, unopened, from the manufacturer: A virgin Audio-Technica ATN15 stylus, tapered cantilever, Shibata Nude Diamond. $26.00 at the time. Cool!

Squaredancecalling Steve · August-31st-2003, 02:55 PM

Cool, Gary -- hope you have something to put it into!

Fewer companies making fewer needles these days, although I'd guess there must be some good new ones made for the new high-end turntables. (Willy?) Up until I few years ago, when I needed to replace a needle on my calling set I'd get an lp needle on one side and 78 needle on the other, but the number of 78s users has dwindled to the point where Astatic puts two lp needles back to back. I switched from diamond to ruby about fifteen years ago -- shorter life but better tone.

Still, I'm going to have to change over to digital soon. The writings on the wall. Several of the square dance record companies have given up putting out anything on records and now offer only mp3 downloads for their new releases.

Gary Sisco · August-31st-2003, 04:50 PM

Hi, Squaredance -- Don't believe the hype. Thanks to hip hop, styluses are still easy to come by. The local Radio Shacks where I live have them in stock right in the stores. Have all along. Back in the 80s, when people were telling me "they're not even making them anymore," I was just buying them at the Shack.

I still have a turntable (and always will) but I have a Shure cartridge right now, so the stylus I found won't fit it. I may look around for an Audio Technica cartridge, though, to go with stylus.

Squaredancecalling Steve · August-31st-2003, 05:15 PM

It's not the hype, Gary, it's my own experience in getting needles for my working set. We used to have a choice of Shure, Astatic and one other (Stanton?), which several choices per brand -- now Astatic is the only one making them, and they offer only diamonds or rubies. Glad to hear needles are still readily available for other cartridges, but for the pro caller's rig (Hilton's infinitely variable speed turntable) the choices have shrunk to one option.

Almost everybody agrees that, in the middle of the action at a dance, records are easier to use than laptops, but the drift to digital seems irreversible. Part of the problem is quality of the new square dance records. Although the sound and the musicians are usually good, they often press them on cheap acetate which degrades very quickly. I have old dance records on quality vinyl that sound better than some of the stuff I bought this year.

Gary Sisco · August-31st-2003, 05:33 PM

Why not switch to Technic 1200's? Also variably pitched, and the turntable of choice for hip hop, reggae, dancehall, house and other such dj-driven musics? They're as around as they ever were and so are cartridges and styluses.

Squaredancecalling Steve · August-31st-2003, 06:12 PM

Because the Hilton is the whole set-up in one easy-to-carry unit: turntable, 2 pre-amps, 2 amps, and 2 mike channels. My son had a (used) Technic when he was scratching -- now he's gone all digital. I've been impressed by some of the digital DJ setups I've seen recently -- automatic beat-matching, etc.

I'm dreading the transfer and editing process. OTOH, a number of my best tunes are OOP and losing quality with each play, so I've got to do it.

Gary Sisco · September-1st-2003, 08:09 AM

Gotcha.