Kind of interesting to see one of these old machines play a record that was made for it -- the tone arm is moving towards the center at a rate that is actually noticeable over just a few seconds. The label looks like it says "For convenience use tungsten needles". If that's what it really says and not just a trick of the shadows, that would wear the record out really fast, because tungsten is insanely hard, approaching corundum; not sure if it is the absolute hardest metal, but has to be getting up there. The advice I read many years ago (but never had occasion to use) for playing records like these was to use cactus spines as needles, so that the cactus spine would wear out instead of the record, and you would just change needles after each record.
Unfortunately as of right now, my 1918 Brunswick Ultona is the only phonograph I own, but I do agree a brighter sound would improve the quality tenfold.
