Special A: “The Four Jacks March” by The New York Military Band 1910

[melvind]

My first two posts for the Edison Amberol Special A-K series were messed up, so I am putting them back in.

 

The Special A record I transferred here is very worn and has a lot of blasting as you will be able to hear. It is by far the worst in the series, but each of them has issues.

 

Part of the reason I wanted to make this series of recordings is away to show what playing fragile old records (like 4 minute wax Edison Amberols) on original equipment, most often not well tuned to efficient play, can do to records. These 4 minute wax records are probably the easiest to destroy with repeated plays. They are brittle and break very easily. They also are prone to groove wear from repeated plays which is why they were replaced with celluloid records after just a short few years.

 

The saddest thing about this project is that the worst performances are in the best shape. I am assuming this is because the records were not played as often.