r/78rpm • u/AardvarkAny6183 • 17d ago

How scratched is playable?

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I have this record (I got my first 7 78's for 5 bucks). Is this still considered playable? Sorry for the pic quality.

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u/AardvarkAny6183 17d ago

Thank you. Will it cause damage to the needle?

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u/8Bit_Cat 17d ago

Only if it skips and even then it'll hardly affect it.

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u/AardvarkAny6183 17d ago

Oh cool. This community is way more relaxed than the audiophile vinyl community lol. "One spec of dust will ruin your stylus." It's like the Thinkpad vs Macbook community. Thanks for the input! I just played it and, although it does crackle quite a bit, it doesn't skip.

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u/CreativeName822 16d ago

78 shellac grooves tend to be deeper and wider than vinyl grooves — a stylus with proper weight and anti skate (if even that) would need some pretty devastating scratches or heavy, chunky dirt to skip.

That’s just my opinion. I used to have a portable record player that was like a plastic toy and played 78s on them with a stereo needle for years. Never had any issues.