The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

Steve E. · Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 10:38 pm Post subject: Acetate echo-box?

I just got a goofy idea of trying to turn my Wilcox-Gay Recordio into a slow echo machine. I guess it would be a rather expensive experiment, but couldn't I rewire the playback arm externally to something else and feed it back into the recording input, from a few grooves behind? It might produce some interesting distortion and deterioration of the signal over each repetition.

What's the simplest piece of electronics I could connect the wires to that would give me a signal? Anything at Radio Shack?

andybee · Joined: 14 Aug 2006 Posts: 63

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

probably a phono preamp or a cheap dj mixer would work. it's a cool idea. let us know how it works.

cuttercollector · Joined: 11 Jun 2006 Posts: 259 Location: San Jose, CA

I heard a rumor that Les Paul did something like this live on stage at one point before he started messing with tape.
All you have to do is mix the output of the portable machine's playback arm pickup into the signal going to the cutter along with the new material. The ammount you bleed in will determine echo intensity, too much and it will regenerate wildly, too little and no echo. the speed of the table and the number of grooves behind will determine the delay. 78 - one groove behind will be the shortest.

Steve E. · Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2007 8:36 pm Post subject:

Right. I'm really wondering if anyone can recommend a specific piece of cheap hardware to which I can connect the two leads of the playback tonearm, for the sake of amplifying the signal to a line level. I don't want to rewire anything inside the recordio, I'm just gonna clip those leads, through this theoretical hardware, and feed them externally into the line input Gib made me.

grooveguy · Joined: 22 Jun 2006 Posts: 40

If your Wilcox-Gay Recordio is "stock," it's got a crystal playback cartridge, which is inherently line level. I used to have a Motorola machine that was essentially the same thing. Does the lead coming from your playback arm have the usual RCA plug on it? If so, simply use an RCA extension cord to bring this signal to your mixer, or even to a simple amplifier that will drive a speaker. You can put the microphone near the speaker and get the echo effect that way. When I did this at 78 r.p.m. (this was back in the mid-1950s!), the echo was delayed nearly a second. Actually .76923 seconds is one revolution, but the playback arm is opposite the recording arm, so you have either about 3/8 of a second playing back the groove just as it's cut, or just over a second if you catch the next revolution. Very interesting effects, more of a "chorus" than an echo. You can try talking to yourself, but good luck... it's hard to keep track of what you're saying!

drdub · Joined: 28 Nov 2005 Posts: 48 Location: AUSTRIA

we did that using the vinylrecorder.
we just used the techniks pickup to get signal just cut and routeed
it on to the head again.
gotta be careful because you easily generate feedback loops which build up enormously and might destroy your head.....
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satan spins vinyl

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