I mean, a record you play it to the point that the surface turned gray, or distortion increased.

We could have a discussion about stylus pressure (in a nutshell, too little is worse than too much). We could add what the primitive record player was, for instance a VM (Voice of Music) changer that would play a stack of six LPs.... or an early 1950s player with ONE OUNCE of stylus pressure....

I expect that we did some pretty ignorant things when we were handed technology beyond our understanding.

Went through several copies of Derek and the Dominoes Layla and Live at Fillmore East by the Allman Brothers.

For the majority of my vinyl years, I owned a Bang & Olufsen turntable.

They are notoriously gentle on vinyl, so I can only recall a few pieces that were ever badly worn or warped, and it was usually because I bought it used, or an advanced user error (like stepping on it).

I had decent phonograph, too.

I had room mates, though.

Pink Floyd - Meddle 2X
Pink Floyd - DSOM 4X

AC/DC Back in Black

God, we are old.

When we had repair technicians, a guy would come in looking for a job, and of course he knew everything about everything. So I set up a 30 question test, with the kinds of questions repair techs should know, such as normal idling current for an output stage in a push pull amp, take up torque on a cassette deck, and so on. We had a question asking about typical phono cartridge stylus pressure.

When a guy answered in ounces, I knew the search had to continue...

If they answered with "A nickel, or a quarter- depends on how badly warped it is",.......

"How terribly strange to be seventy."

That's a Paul Simon line, and of course I forget which song it comes from. But the closer you get, the stranger it seems.


On the other hand, I once had a turntable with the perfect stylus pressure for LPs, and a second head shell with a stylus for 78s that was identical except for the penny glued to the top of it. I didn't have to adjust the tone arm to switch from one to the other.

Also, one 78 rpm player I had from the 40s worked great except for one place: at the end of "Jam Session" by Benny Goodman's late 30s band, a bass drum hit by Gene Krupa right about a second before the end of the record would always throw the stylus out of the groove!

Rolling Stones' 45 RPM "Satisfaction..The import version on the London label was the best . Very dynamic. Other pressings of this song did not have the " punch "of this 7 inch record..The more you played it on a Garrard turntable with Shur M3D cartridge the better it sounded...........

I wore out Jeff Beck- Blow By Blow, Jethro Tull- Stand Up and Genesis- Seconds Out. The first cartridge I had was an ADC on a crappy BSR turntable that was part of my $300 first stereo, I got Stand Up from my brother and it was played on his crappy Panasonic stereo with a ceramic cartridge so that was pretty rough by the time I got it. Blow By Blow was played on my JVC turntable that I called 'Feedback Special' and that came with an Empire cartridge. I bought an Audio-Tecnhica AT-30E moving coil cartridge in about 1980, up graded to the AT-31E soon after and then found a Denon 103d in about '82 and still use it. I have the AT carts, but the Denon's sound is a bit more even- the bass is stronger with the AT, but it's good for some albums. I haven't taken notes to list those and when an album is mastered badly, it's incredibly obvious with the Denon but when it's a great master, it's sooooo good.....

I have never been a fan of loaning albums- I saw how people handled their vinyl and that pretty well did it, for me. I haven't worn out many albums and never liked using any kind of liquid to clean them. I know someone who has a Nitty Gritty cleaner and inside, it looks like a bad science fair project. I thought the album looked OK after cleaning, but the residue left it with a lot of crackles. He had borrowed a "better" cleaner and it has two fuzzy rollers with a red spiral on each- they're probably supposed to dry the surface, but it seems more likely that they're on it to get the user's attention because they're just small diameter paint rollers and couldn't go deeply into the groove if someone's life depended on it. That album sounded worse, too.

When I was a student at UCRiverside in 1967, and doing all the electronic maintenance in the music department, I ran across the DGG ARCHIV classical catalog. The faculty member in charge of the library (Edward H. Clinkscale, surely a suspect name for a music professor!) had purchased almost the entire line, hundreds of flawless recordings of music from many different centuries.

I fell in love with Bach's B Minor Mass. First, it came in a cloth-bound cover almost an inch thick. Second, the music is astounding and the performances are better than astounding. Third, there are three LPs to this set and about two hours of music. I soon had bought my own.

This was what I wore out.

A few years later, after I installed a set of Rogersound speakers at the iconic Hollywood Tower Records, the manager (Charlie) told me I could have whatever "record" I wanted. Mine actually was worn out, so I asked for that. Despite its being three records with a retail near $30, he agreed. I still have that copy, and in fact also its reissue on CD.

Here's what the package looked like:

The first album I absolutely wore out was The Wicked Pickett by the great soul man Wilson Pickett. Every song was a soul treat!

And almost none of it was played on mainsteam radio.