Wilcox Gay Recordio??

[holmesuser01]

I've got several hundred Recordio discs of my dad singing with friends from the early 1940's. They did a good job and the recordings are fairly decent. I destroyed the Recordio when I was 6-7 years old. Daddy gave it to me to play with. At the time, it had not been operated in 25 years.

Like to have that one now. Any one.

Porn movie. Heh heh heh.

[Bill Simon]

just saw a Wilcox Gay Recordio in an antique mall in Columbus Ohio, its in a modern looking console cabinet, looks more like 60s than what it actually is, probably late 40s, and for the asking price of something around $100 it will be there for the forseeable future! its an ugly unit as far as vintage radios go and I already have a portable unit with the same turntable/recorder and of course the crystal record head unit is bad, I'll stick with my Wire Recorders! but for $25, if its in an attractive cabinet I'd go for it

[holmesuser01]

I just saw this thread for the first time. I didnt think it was a porn title.

My dad had a Recordio that they used to record events at his little country church in Long Branch, SC. I have a selection of 10" and 7" discs. Surprisingly, they sound good. Some of the discs have not faired well over the last 60 years, but most are still relatively scratch-free.

The statement in a previous post, 'recordio didn't care' was right on. My dad told me that when the cutting head died on his recordio, he wrote the company. They replied by saying that his unit was out of warranty, and that the new head would cost $$. Plus, they wanted him to return it to an authorized service facility. More $$.

The later recordings that I have are much quieter. Dad turned the recording volume down. The recording head was replaced at least 4 times before they all gave up on it. It sat in a box in the basement for years. Then, I got old enough to receive it to take apart. I was around 7 years old. I can still remember the cabinet. Somewhere in my junk I still have a bad recording head for this unit. I also have the last disk it recorded. The lady was singing a lovely passage. She hit a high note, there was some distortion, and silence.

It was a good idea at the time. Too bad Wilcox-Gay was so cheap with their execution.

I've transferred 50+ disks to audio tape. Dad is past 80 now, and enjoys listening to them occasionally.

[mbates14]

i know this might be a dead thread already. But does anyone have one of these recordios? i would like to obtain one and play with it. something new. :-)

[blue_lateral]

Meissner also made home recording units similar to the Wilcox-Gay, and they show up on ebay all the time. I have seen as many as three of them on there at once. All I can seem to find right now is this blurry thumbnail. I also stumbled across a forum devoted to such things.

http://lathetrolls.phpbbweb.com/

John
.

[Carmine]

I just noticed this thread title pop-up... I have some blank and recorded discs if anybody is interested. Found them in an abandoned house. One of the discs I played back sounds like a recording of a radio show from the late 30s.

[mbates14]

well i popped this thread back up, because i wanna try playing with cutting my own record. somethign i havent done before, and i am intrigued to do so.

thats why i asked if anyone has a recordio collecting dust, so i can take it off thier hands. :-)

I seen a website somewhere, where a guy recorded onto a solo plastic plate. ROFL.

actually other thant he hiss, it sounded pretty good. How does this thing actually work? a speaker vibrates a hot needle?

[jasong]

This product has perhaps the worst name ever.

"New from Wilcox Gay! The Wilcox Gay Swish Fellatron!"

[bgadow]

mbates, I might just have something for you. I think there are 3 Recordios (well, Recordettes, as they called these portable units) upstairs in the radio room. Will have to have a look see. I had one of the Meissners, which was quite nice in its day, but it was pretty rough by the time I got it. I finally gave it away. I have never tried to record with one.

Come to think of it, I also have a rather nice portable Packard-Bell radio/recorder. I'm not so sure that the Masco unit out in the shed isn't a disc recorder, too.

[gearhead]

Originally Posted by VinylHanger

I missed this post the first time around. If I had seen it, I may have mentioned the fact that the title to this post sounds like a really bad porn movie.
Don't mind me, I just have a rare bit of spare time on my hands and nothing to do.

Sounds like a Fellini movie.

[tubino]

I think I keep tripping over 1 or 2 of these in my basement. Let me know if you don't get what you want -- maybe I've got it.

[analog]

I stumbled on to this thread, and remembered a site where I found replacement parts for the RCA 45 RPM record changer, they rebuild the crystal cartridges and cutter heads. For the RCA parts they were great to deal with.

http://www.west-techservices.com/p2.htm

Eric

[Dave S]

I love these old recorders! I have several and they are totally impractical, just like all my other stuff! As I sit here in my living room watching black-and-white TV on a 10-inch screen, making records on a Recordio seems like a perfectly normal thing to want to do!

Discs are still available from a couple of places, including the same source I was buying them from decades ago when we were still custom cutting 78s commercially: Transco. Coincidentally, Transco is located just down the road from me.

NOS blanks will work (as will, apparently, certain disposable plastic dinner plates!) but usually won't offer the best results. The acetate coating dries out over the years and become harder which makes it more difficult to cut, and results in a noisier recording. New blanks are still optimally soft and cut as cleanly as possible. Of course, the Recordio and other home "cold cutter" units didn't make all that great sounding recordings even when they were new, compared to the professional cutters.

I've run across information out there on the web (sorry, I couldn't find it just now) about how to convert a cold cutter to a hot cutter. I haven't tried it, but the people who have say it's not difficult, just a turn or two of nichrome wire around the stylus. It's apparently a little tricky setting it so the heat is enough to make the lacquer cut like butter, but not hot enough to ruin the stylus! Adding a vacuum system to collect the thread (be sure to do this the right way, 'cause that thread is extremely flammable!) is another relatively easy mod that can make a home unit work a little more like a pro model.

By all means, pick up these units (as long as they're not overpriced) and keep them running. Or pass them on to another wacky collector who will.

--Dave