Woah! Dude! Ya, it's me! So I bought a diamond 3 mil stylus for the Shure M55 cartridge at my parents' house. Played very well. Somehow it got damaged, so I salvaged the aluminum stylus part. I ripped off the aluminum shanked saphire needle from the rubber seat on my stereo flip cartridge (the needle flips from 78 to LP) I have on my 1940 Silvertone radio/phono/cutter, and glued the aluminum shank of the diamond one in its place (carefully, so that it is centered). Made the shank short enough so that the diamond tip sat just a bit in front of the rubber yoke. WOW! Vertical surface noise significantly reduced! What's even more amazing is my ability to play just about any 78, and have it sound good! ...Even Tommy Dorsey's "I'm Gettin Sentimental Over You," which never plays right. Every pressing I've ever bought of that record was flawed. I believe that it was cut with a bad cutting needle. Yeah. This needle plays pre and post-war records amazingly well. It gets to the lock groove, and it can just sit there for like ever and not tear it up. I can play record after record, even the nasty ones, and it still plays right on all of the records. Typically, if the record started clean, the needle will have very little black dust, if any, once it reaches the end of the record. This is nothing at all like the saphire needles that quickly get chipped, and start sounding crappy and tearing into records after only a few hundred plays (if that). I love this! Never again am I going to use saphire needles!

In case anyone is interested, there's a guy on eBay that sells the Shure 78 needles. They're all diamond, and if they're cut at all like this one, they'll sound great. It is so nice to have a needle that is good to my records, and that keeps playing well over and over again! I'd consider just putting a Shure M55 cartridge in my phonograph, but the tone arm doesn't have bearings good enough for those tracking forces. I will not use the old stiff twist type set-screw cartridges anymore, though. They are really hard on records.

T.

Thomas,
When I restored an RCA 67V1 player (Concord 200), I gutted the orig crystal, and replaced with modern stereo ceramic, with bridged channels. Modified the armature, but used original stylus from West Tech Services. Got a lot of old 78's. The stylus attaches to the armature with #00-96 nut. You think this cartridge is a candidate for a 3 mil diamond stylus? Give us the ebay designation.

marv

:Woah! Dude! Ya, it's me! So I bought a diamond 3 mil stylus for the Shure M55 cartridge at my parents' house. Played very well. Somehow it got damaged, so I salvaged the aluminum stylus part. I ripped off the aluminum shanked saphire needle from the rubber seat on my stereo flip cartridge (the needle flips from 78 to LP) I have on my 1940 Silvertone radio/phono/cutter, and glued the aluminum shank of the diamond one in its place (carefully, so that it is centered). Made the shank short enough so that the diamond tip sat just a bit in front of the rubber yoke. WOW! Vertical surface noise significantly reduced! What's even more amazing is my ability to play just about any 78, and have it sound good! ...Even Tommy Dorsey's "I'm Gettin Sentimental Over You," which never plays right. Every pressing I've ever bought of that record was flawed. I believe that it was cut with a bad cutting needle. Yeah. This needle plays pre and post-war records amazingly well. It gets to the lock groove, and it can just sit there for like ever and not tear it up. I can play record after record, even the nasty ones, and it still plays right on all of the records. Typically, if the record started clean, the needle will have very little black dust, if any, once it reaches the end of the record. This is nothing at all like the saphire needles that quickly get chipped, and start sounding crappy and tearing into records after only a few hundred plays (if that). I love this! Never again am I going to use saphire needles!
:
:In case anyone is interested, there's a guy on eBay that sells the Shure 78 needles. They're all diamond, and if they're cut at all like this one, they'll sound great. It is so nice to have a needle that is good to my records, and that keeps playing well over and over again! I'd consider just putting a Shure M55 cartridge in my phonograph, but the tone arm doesn't have bearings good enough for those tracking forces. I will not use the old stiff twist type set-screw cartridges anymore, though. They are really hard on records.
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:T.
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Not sure of the cartridge construction. If you can somehow remove the gem and put it in a shank that fits your cartridge, then yes. I use the kind of stereo flip cartrige where only the needle flips (common in the 60s and 70s). There is a plastic part with the flip handle, and then a rubber coupling that a very small aluminum shank attaches to. The shank carries the stylus.

I think that this is where I got it:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Pfanstiehl-Diamond-Needle-4766-D3-78-RPM-SHURE-N78S_W0QQitemZ270251814214QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3eec436d46

There are, of course, other sources for diamond needles appropriate for various cartridges. The trick is to have a properly cut needle that doesn't damage records. I have had a few other so-called diamond needles that tore up records. This one that I have now, though, is cut perfectly, and wears well.

T.

:Not sure of the cartridge construction. If you can somehow remove the gem and put it in a shank that fits your cartridge, then yes. I use the kind of stereo flip cartrige where only the needle flips (common in the 60s and 70s). There is a plastic part with the flip handle, and then a rubber coupling that a very small aluminum shank attaches to. The shank carries the stylus.
:
:I think that this is where I got it:
:
:http://cgi.ebay.com/Pfanstiehl-Diamond-Needle-4766-D3-78-RPM-SHURE-N78S_W0QQitemZ270251814214QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3eec436d46
:
:There are, of course, other sources for diamond needles appropriate for various cartridges. The trick is to have a properly cut needle that doesn't damage records. I have had a few other so-called diamond needles that tore up records. This one that I have now, though, is cut perfectly, and wears well.
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:T.
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:Hi! Thomas,
I bought a hand crank RCA Victrola last summer and, in the process of researching it, found that steel needles for it, were commonly sold in quantities of 100 and 500.The needles were only good for 1 play.With further research ,I found that manufacturers of early 78 rpm records put grit in the record. The reason for this was to make the record last longer by sacrificing the needle. My question is: How well would your diamond needle hold up on these old records? Tks. Bob Masse
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Perfectly. A proper needle is round, and fits the groove properly. Steel needles start out the wrong size, and end up with blunt edges that damage the grooves (notice how the ends of recordings are chewed up the most...this is both from blunt needles and tight spacing, and possibly a stiff automation trigger).

The records (most pre-war) had grit in them. The electrical era recordings get softer as time progresses. Even though they were designed for this cheap play-back medium (steel needles, that actually are expensive when you consider how you have to keep purchasing them, and they damage records), an optimally shaped needle that holds its shape is better. Seems strange at first, but a diamond needle is VERY hard. If cut properly, it has a perfect shape that fits the groove of most records perfectly. It applies force to the groove perfectly. It follows the modulation perfectly. It has a perfectly round tip so that it gently glides through the grooves. It doesn't leave bits of steel all over the place that get imbedded in the groove walls. It does this perfectly time and time again.

I have been playing records like mad with this diamond needle, and some of my most troublesome, too. They keep sounding great time and time again. I guarantee you that after a month a saphire needle would already be noticeably worn. This diamond needle glides through my records time and time again. It can sit in a lock groove for perhaps 3 minutes (I don't leave it longer because that's just foolish), and no noticeable wear occurs. Diamond also won't chip, so there are no sharp edges ever. It will eventually go blunt and not fit the treble modulations well, and will cause distortion and a bit of wear in these places. Also, as it narrows, it'll sink to the bottom of the groove and become noisy. That won't happen for some time, though, and it will never develop sharp edges to damage my records.

Read G.A. Brigg's "Sound Reproduction." It contains a wealth of good information.

T.

What I meant by "electrically recorded records get softer as time progresses" is that as time went on, manufacturers made them softer, and less durable to stiff, poorly shaped needles. They don't soften with time.

T.

:What I meant by "electrically recorded records get softer as time progresses" is that as time went on, manufacturers made them softer, and less durable to stiff, poorly shaped needles. They don't soften with time.
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:T.
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:Hi! Thomas,
Thanks for your reply.I will look for that book. I have found info on the shape of diamond needles and the reason one shape out performs another.As far as records being made of softer marerial, at one point the manufactures quit putting the grit in them.The reason I was asking you about the diamond needle is that I lucked into a batch of about 500, 78rpm records, for $50.I was afraid to play them on a vintage turntable but with the benefit of your experience, I know how to go about it now.
Tks. Bob Masse
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Ideal is a good needle that doesn't lose its shape, and is shaped properly in the first place. Minimal horizontal tracking force is best, with adequate weight to keep the needle locked in the groove, whatever the tracking force may be. Some of the older and stiffer cartridges will still work fairly well as long as the tone arm isn't too light. They will still wear out the records faster than a lighter and gentler cartridge that requires less lateral force. Also, when switching from a stiff to a more flexible cartridge, keep in mind that if required lateral force is very low, the tone arm bearings might be too stiff for the cartridge, causing the needle to mistrack.

Any cartridge that eliminates much vertical reproduction will eliminate surface noise the best. Stereo cartridges with the two channels wired in parallel are very good at this.

Some crystal cartridges that are cheaply made, but still have desirable tracking characteristics, sound bad due to resonant peaks. These peaks can be eliminated by injecting a small amount of silicon grease. The grease will increase required lateral tracking force, though hopefully not appreciably (depending on cartridge), and will deaden resonant peaks.

T.