Talking Station Needles

Mark first of all congrats you  have a functioning Noma station, I had to gut mine a few years ago and put in a replacement mechanism using a chip.

http://www.needles4turntables.com/78_rpm.htm

You might want to give these guys a shout and see what they can do.

The old style steel needles really chew up records and only are good for a few plays.

I remember using a diamond tip stylus on an old phonograph when I was a child.

Hope they can help.

George

I wonder if a "doll hospital" might have a line on something better. Many dolls used plastic records with pull-string players. Maybe some experimenting with modern nylon or Teflon could reproduce sound but not be as destructive to the record. One bristle of a hairbrush? We used to experiment with my great gramps wide groove records as kids, it was amazing what we used including, broom straw, sticks, gum, and, pop cans...or is the needle wearing out to protect the recording? Im thinkin the stock needle is just of poor quality and once used quickly does damage, right?

I have a talking station. I had it in use 25 years ago and our dishwasher backed up and overflowed. Of course it ran through the floor and onto my layout. It's all rusty now. Someday I'll rebuild it i hope.

Anyway, I just used one needle and played it all the time. I did not know this was a no no.  

Some folks wipe oil and rebox trains between runs. I tend to run things till dead then repair. Who enjoys it more? Hard to tell really. Wonder if this factoid came from an over concerned audiophile fan. I have a late 50s-60s Casper the ghost doll that has survived 4.5 generations of play, no kid can pull that string less than 100 times a visit, must be millions of plays, distorted but he is still understandable...Want to come out and play? I'm scared....etc.

Hi Mark W,

I can't recall if it was from a post here, but there is a you tube on using a modern digital sound board and leds to modernize the station.

Keep your old parts for collectors value and make the station work.

Ok, I found it American Flyer 799 Talking Station

if you read the post under the video, the sound person has Noma sounds and others. And his email address.

Thanks for all the information. I had seen the site for the digital unit and may go that way. I do like the old fashioned sound of the record. The site for the needles looks very interesting. As an aside, I picked up my Noma station at a Great American show about 20 years ago. Someone had taken out the turntable, mounted it on a piece of Masonite, and installed an 18v AC motor. Unit works great.