New 78rpm Saddle Stylus for Playing Record Stampers 

Thanks for your feedback. The first stamper that was played is quite worn, which is why I included a picture of it. It's in approximately V- condition. The second stamper is in E condition but the groove in the stylus is a little too small for it, you can see the fitment in the last picture in the video. Before this project, I explored the idea of a "desktop record press" which would make a soft but playable pressing from a stamper. After several proof-of-concept experiments, I ran the idea past some large institutions that had stampers but no one seemed to feel there was a need for such a machine, so further research was abandoned. I've already developed the technologies to make durable copies of discs from originals or stampers and I continue to offer that as a service.

A stamper is a negative image of a pressed record. The stamper has to be played backwards or reversed via software. Ideally the headshell and cartridge should also be turned 180*.

@@DonWilsonLabs Would a disc that plays inside to out also have to be played backwards?

@@allen-rp3gm Inside-start records (normally) play clockwise. They were particularly common in multi-disc radio transcriptions because the sound quality of inner grooves is somewhat compromised due to the slower linear speed, enough that a quick switch from the end of one side at the smaller inside diameter and the beginning of another at the larger outside diameter would be quite noticeable. By using outside-start for side 1 but inside-start for side 2, that difference was eliminated. Of course if there was a third side, it should again be outside-start to match the quality of the end of the second side. For film soundtracks, inside-start was a good idea because the stylus could easily be set at the very beginning of the cut with the disc not turning, allowing easy synchronisation with a specific frame of the film. Some early recording engineers had more details figured out than most people of today can imagine!