The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

Jesus H Chrysler · Joined: 26 Nov 2006 Posts: 36 Location: Charleston, SC

Anyone heard of it? there's one on ebay,probably from the 30's or 40's kinda rough looking, missing its cover and needle, but cheap. I couldn't find any info on capehart cutters but apparently they made pretty quality equipment for their day, including some very cool 78 changers that could play both sides of the record.

cuttercollector · Joined: 11 Jun 2006 Posts: 307 Location: San Jose, CA

This is pure speculation, but there were a number of oem suppliers of cutters back in the day. I was unable to find the listing on ebay, but if it was crystal it could have been Astatic, I think Brush and Shure as well made generic magnetic and crystal cutters as well as American Microphone , Webster and Universal. Very few companies manufactured their own designs. In those days it was typical for most manufacturers to buy many of the parts from outside vendors. Thus you might have a Wilcox Gay Recordio with a General Industries turntable/lathe mechanism with an Astatic crystal cutter and a Shure microphone, with RCA and GE tubes! Probably Capehart did buy the cutter heads from somebody else, though they did make their own record changers including the record flipper one you mentioned. Two good sources to I.D. old cutters are the Morrison Disk Recording 1930-1960 book and Gib's West-Tech Services.

Jesus H Chrysler · Joined: 26 Nov 2006 Posts: 36 Location: Charleston, SC

here's the picture from the auction. I'm not sure if its a cutter or just a big early magnetic pickup. What do you think?

cuttercollector · Joined: 11 Jun 2006 Posts: 307 Location: San Jose, CA

Well, the 3 things on the left are various forms of cystal pickups. Lower left is more modern European one, upper left is an old one from the 40s as is the center one, which is also BTW, what the Recordette uses as a playback cartridge AND a cutter. The thing on the right does look like an old magnetic horseshoe magnet cutter - or, your right, perhaps an early magnetic playback head from the early 30s. Again, almost every transducer including speakers and microphones, will work both ways to one degree or another. The further back you go the harder it is to tell the designs apart. The cutter would probably have bigger coils and more rubber damping material, but the overall construction would be quite similar...

Jesus H Chrysler · Joined: 26 Nov 2006 Posts: 36 Location: Charleston, SC

so, you could possibly cut with it but it would be no substitute for the real thing? about what I expected.