The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

excellent interview with Sterling Sound's mastering engineer extraordinaire Greg Calbi - from 36 years ago - back in the day when edits by splicing tape and mastering for vinyl records to lacquer on a lathe using only analog processors was the only way you did it -> https://vimeo.com/124045513 Well ...

Not sure this has been posted before here or not - but apparently a new pressing plant is opening in Memphis Tennessee soon - http://memphisrecordpressing.com/ and using the presses that used to be owned by the now closed EKS in Brooklyn - more info at - http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/local-ne...

regarding converting an Ortofon or Westrex to cut into copper -my personal opinion is there is really no way you will be able to successfully do that. The SX-82/84 was designed specifically to handle the stringent requirements of this chore - efforts to convert other cutterheads to this will likely ...

If I'm remembering this correctly the formulation for the copper blanks changed about 3 times - mainly because some chemical products would become less available and needed substitutes - and occasionally to make some improvements. By the final years at Europadisk with the last improvement made we no...

Thanks for the pdf! So - the SK-A you have shown here is for the advanced pitch control options for the VMS-8x. As far as I know these controls wouldn't work with the stock pitch/depth computer of the VMS-70 or earlier.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

The SK-A was a selecter/routing module - you can see one example of it at http://www.vintagetools.de/Vintage-Modules/Pan-Aux-Routing/Neumann-SKA.html

I'm not sure what the SK-E was - I'm curious to know the answer to that as well.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

The Neumann VAB-84 was found in some of the SP-79 consoles and was included mainly for the use with the VMS-82 for Direct Metal Mastering. It is a vertical amplitude limiter used to control depth of cut to within specific limits, especially useful for DMM since the copper blanks don't have as much o...

Well - not sure if you would be interested in this at all - but I have Bob Speiden's one of a kind self built prototype for the Haeco SC-1 (Speiden worked for Haeco in the 60's and was the main designer for the SC-1) - from the info I have one of the channels coils are blown (although I haven't test...

Mark -
thanks for the reply - good stuff in there!

Best regards,
Steve Berson

The old Eastern Air Devices AC motor my Fairchild 523 came with is very noisy causing too much vibrations to go into the cutterhead and turntable. Specs on this motor are 1/20hp 1800rpm 60Hz synchronous - shaft diameter appears to be 3/8". While I could possibly get a direct drive hooked up eventual...

After having just sat not doing anything on my Fairchild 523 restoration project for a couple years I am finally getting moving on it. The Gotham PFB-150WA mono tube amp I have for my Grampian B1/AGU has a few options for input wiring via 6 different input terminals. The options for wiring the input...

One possible place for support and repair for Ortofon cutterheads (and other Ortofon vinyl mastering gear) is Etec in Denmark - http://www.etec.dk/ortofon-vintage.html

Best regards,
Steve Berson

That went quick! - and for full price at that - I was expecting it to go lower considering brand new motors are less. I had just sent an email asking for what the cost of shipping was going to be yesterday - and it's already gone today.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

The Haeco SC-1 used a shankless stylus. I'm not aware of others that did although I imagine there might have been some other more obscure cutterheads that did as well.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

Steve Who is plating copper masters in California now days or did recently? Any ideas or does any one else know the guy? He goes by the name of Dante It'll be good to find out Cheers I believe Dante is the name of a cutting technician for the Scientologists. If we're thinking of the same person the...

I can verify what George Z is saying. Can't remember the exact year - but prior to 2004 - there was a change in plating formulation that we did at Europadisk as well which made the necessity for any refrigeration of the DMM blanks much less - in fact essentially optional. Best regards, Steve Berson

Beautiful photos and lathe! Congratulations and best of luck on the remainder of the restoration.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

A gathering of those that wish to honor Al Grundy's memory will be held -

Friday July 20th 2:30-5:30p
Corsino Cantina Italiana
637 Hudson Street
New York City

All are welcome.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

http://www.auldworks.com/AESDD/dd1.htm

Sad news for all lathers today - Al Grundy, easily the most knowledgeable man in North America on record cutting systems and the Neumann lathes in particular, and one of the main people responsible for keeping the professional record mastering systems in the USA running for the past 30 years - just ...