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I was not sure where to post this but here seemed like the most appropriate spot.
I recently looked for a musicians turntable because of the recent resurgence of vinyl records and to my amazement, there was not even a mention anywhere about them. It seems that no one knows currently or even seems to remember what these things were or that they even existed. I don't know if the term musicians turntable is even a proper coined phrase but guitarists from my era knew all about them and certainly had one. I guess this could be called a 4 speed turntable these days with 78, 45, 33-1/3 and 16-2/3 rpm speeds. It's the 16-2/3 rpm speed that makes it a musicians turntable. Back in the 50's this was very common and there were records recorded at 16-2/3 rpm, mainly spoken word records and like that. This is because that slow speed has a low fidelity for music and is not real suitable for that purpose. That slow speed however is a godsend for guitarist of my era because you could play a 33-1/3 rpm record at that 16-2/3 rpm speed and have it play back at 1/2 the normal speed. This made it far easier to figure out that tricky guitar part on that new record. It was still in tune but just a octave lower than normal, most important, 1/2 the speed. This is way before the appearance of tape recorders and digital playback systems. It was all we had to use at the time and as I said it was a godsend. Does anyone know where you can get good cheap 4 speed turntable these days, or one with 16-2/3 rpm speed?
I recently looked for a musicians turntable because of the recent resurgence of vinyl records and to my amazement, there was not even a mention anywhere about them. It seems that no one knows currently or even seems to remember what these things were or that they even existed. I don't know if the term musicians turntable is even a proper coined phrase but guitarists from my era knew all about them and certainly had one. I guess this could be called a 4 speed turntable these days with 78, 45, 33-1/3 and 16-2/3 rpm speeds. It's the 16-2/3 rpm speed that makes it a musicians turntable. Back in the 50's this was very common and there were records recorded at 16-2/3 rpm, mainly spoken word records and like that. This is because that slow speed has a low fidelity for music and is not real suitable for that purpose. That slow speed however is a godsend for guitarist of my era because you could play a 33-1/3 rpm record at that 16-2/3 rpm speed and have it play back at 1/2 the normal speed. This made it far easier to figure out that tricky guitar part on that new record. It was still in tune but just a octave lower than normal, most important, 1/2 the speed. This is way before the appearance of tape recorders and digital playback systems. It was all we had to use at the time and as I said it was a godsend. Does anyone know where you can get good cheap 4 speed turntable these days, or one with 16-2/3 rpm speed?
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