The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

Steve E.

http://sonoraman.proboards107.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=7666

From a Columbus OH paper:

Studio puts its stamp on new records

When most people "cut a record," they enter a studio and sing a song or play an instrument.

In contrast, when John Hull cuts a record, he cuts a record.

At his Musicol Recording in the Linden neighborhood, Hull etches "masters" -- lacquer discs grooved with music from an original recording -- by using a ruby-tipped stylus powered by a 64-year-old lathe.

Hull, who will turn 79 on Thursday, opened Musicol as a recording studio in 1966 but cut his first master more than 50 years ago.

Fewer than a dozen people, he estimates, still do by hand what he does.

His is no dying-art story, however.

Given the growing demand for vinyl records, Hull isn't any less busy.

"Dad cut 300 lacquers (masters) last year, and he's on track to break that this year," said his son and co-worker, Warren.

John Hull taught himself how to etch grooves into lacquer as a teenager in Columbus.

"The benefit with the way we do it is you can inspect every record by eye," he said.

The drawback, for someone who leans toward bluegrass and Southern gospel music, involves listening to every order.

The music has to be monitored: A pitch that agitates the stylus too much distorts the grooves, producing a poor-sounding record.

"Have you heard this stuff called noise rock?" Hull asked one recent afternoon. "Today, I'm going to cut . . . Teeth Collection by something called Plasmic Formation. This stuff is so different. . . . The pitch can really mess with the grooves."

The music played as he worked.

"Oh, my, it sounds like a bird in distress," he said. "I really pity somebody who hasn't had any experience with this stuff."

After the elder Hull cuts a master, Warren, 47, ships it to a plant on the East Coast where nickel-plated negatives of the master are made.

The negatives, or "stampers," are shipped back to Musicol, where the other two employees, DJ Fitzgerald and J.R. Ferguson, place palm-sized "biscuits" of heated vinyl between the stampers -- in what looks like an industrial-strength waffle iron -- to create the records.

The results range from red, green and gold to blue, white, "Coke-bottle clear" and black -- whatever the act wants.

A typical order consists of 500 to 1,000 copies.

Although it has pressed up to 50,000 copies of a single recording, Musicol maintains a niche in small batches.

The presses run from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. five days a week, with orders processed for labels such as Columbus Discount Records and other companies worldwide.

Most customers, Warren Hull said, are just discovering vinyl records.

"All I can say," he said, "is what's old is new again."