Some Sad Stories and the Records I Wish I Had!

Some Sad Stories and the Records I Wish I Had.

I've lumped these two subjects together because in some ways, they are related! Vinyl records 'can' be fragile such as I've detailed elsewhere about hot cars and 'warped' records, but records can be fragile in other ways too. They break! I could, and will tell some sad stories like the time whilst carefully turning a Jimi Hendrix compilation over and trying not to place my fingers on the grooves, I dropped it and it crashed to the floor chipping a sizeable hunk out of the vinyl. Parts of the first two tracks no longer exist! And the time an early copy of 'Led Zeppelin 4' cracked right the down the middle whilst I was removing the record off the turntable. As I recall I think the pressing was faulty. Seriously! I have Ringo Starr's solo album from around 1974 with the same defect although it's only partial. It still plays but the stylus makes a loud 'tick' as it passes by the cracked section!

Perhaps records are just fragile. Period. A friend of mine recently showed me her tiny IPOD that she takes to the gym. She knows I am a vinyl aficionado (and so is she as she works in the broadcast industry as a 'presenter'), but she said quite truthfully, you can't use a 'personal' turntable in a gym. Yep! Apart from severely 'warping' many prized records, I've also managed to badly scratch valued records. Ouch! I've tried to train myself to always put a record immediately back in its sleeve after use, as a 'naked' record is an accident 'waiting to happen'.

That fellow 'Murphy' is always lurking around the corner! Merely placing a stylus on a record is fraught with danger! I recall destroying one of my styli on one of my Super OM cartridges, when the arm lift slipped out of my grasp and the stylus landed heavily on the record. I thought it had survived the drop but when I used it again I realized that it didn't! Close examination with a magnifier showed 'no tip'. Mmmmmmm. Actually this is another worthwhile use for the dynamic stabiliser on the M97xE, although to be perfectly honest I haven't been willing to try it, although the written instructions say it will protect the stylus in the case of an accident. I guess an 'accident' will happen one day to prove it 'one way or the other!

Records destroyed or damaged in some way are often impossible to replace and I'm always on the lookout for possible replacements! I would love to get a replacement for my 'slightly' chipped Jimi Hendrix compilation album but I've never seen any Hendrix vinyl in the second hand shops I frequent! But maybe one day! I believe 'new' copies are available though. To be honest I have seen several copies of the same album in the shops but seemingly they're never the one's I'm after! At one stage I did have the complete Beatles Collection on vinyl, but sadly heat caused 'warping' got to most of those too. Double Ouch!

I recently heard of an mint unplayed copy of the Beatles 'Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band' popping up in a charity store somewhere in Australia. Unfortunately somebody in the store realized its value and it was eventually sold for thousands of dollars! Fair enough, I guess. The 78 RPM 'shellac' records are even more fragile! Years ago my brother collected a few (although he had no way of playing them) and they were stacked on a shelf of sorts and one day the shelf broke.....and you can guess the rest! Yes, records are precious and fragile! More to come! Felix.