Dansettes and other fetishes.

In which I (however pointlessly) share my perhaps fondness for "old tin boxes".

I was just looking at the new book put out by Pete Best. Apparently his mother opened a little "club" in her basement that was where the Beatles performed when they were still the Quarrymen. There's a picture of the record player they used to play records in the club. It's a Dansette, featuring the exact same model BSR record changer I owned when I played my first Beatles LP.

I've always had a morbid fascination with these things. (Why morbid, you ask? Well I suppose you could think of them as YB Parlophone killers, since tons of Beatles albums have been worn to death on them.)

These things were ubiquitous in Britain in the 50's and 60's. There were only a few variations on the changer. The model shown is a "modern" updating of the earlier model, functionally unchanged for all practical purposes. Later on yet more modernized versions came out, again essentially just dressed up, though the later ones did have a slightly better cartridge. Yet the boxes they came in seem to have all been one-of's. I don't think I ever saw two of the same model. I wonder why.

The first record player I remember growing up with was a 78-only unit that took hardened steel needles, special ones for playing an entire stack of record before needing changed. It broke. (My uncle blamed me, but I think it just broke.) It was sent out for repairs and when it came back it had one of the earlier BSR 4-speed changers, with crystal turnover cartridge and synthetic sapphire styli. We thought of these as permanent needles, which is very far from true. A common misconception at the time. This one had a white BSR TC8M cartridge

I found out later that these things actually had a crude antiskating mechanism built in.

When we sold the radiogram it was replaced with a Dansette, with the aforementioned UA-14 model record changer, as pictured in Pete's book. It came with an "exploded diagram", the first I'd ever seen. I was in hog heaven. Of course I took the thing apart right away. I even got it back together again with no spare parts. It had a bright orange (cool!) BSR TC8H cartridge.

My best friend at the time also had a (different model) Dansette, with the same changer. His had a chocolate brown BSR TC8L cartridge. His didn't play as loudly as mine. Mine skipped more on bassy records than his. I later found out the difference. The H M and L designations were for High, Medium, and Low output(*). Cheaper units used the high output unit for decent volume with less complicated electronics. Unfortunately, the higher the output the lower the compliance.

I spent a good portion of my youth staring at the stylus as it tracked its way across the records.

Even though these things were (relatively) heavy tracking (10 grams) groove grinders (especially since no one ever changed the "needles" until they started to skip grooves), I still have an inexplicable fondness for them. After all, it was how I first heard "With THe BEatles".

OK, I've fessed up, what's your phonographic fetish? (I said PHONOgraphic!)

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* I may have got those backwards - memory fades. Was it H for High output/low compliance, or H for High (relatively!) compliance/low output?

 

Hey Steve,

Less than a half-hour ago I was browsing this site

http://www.dansettes.co.uk/

Jumped there from some other site on in-dash record players.. some of those used a spring-loaded mechanism to keep the upside-down tonearm on the record .. mint Shaded Dogs, anyone?

Cheers

 

Interesting site, thanks. They seem more interested in the cases, whereas I'm more interested in the changers. (Interstingly too, not all Dansettes had BSR changers. Some had Garrards.) I lose interest when they move from leatherette-covered wood to plastic and the black/chrome changers.

The in-dash record players didn't take 12" disks, so the Shaded Dogs were spared that at least!

(Jukeboxes played records in all sorts of bizarre manners. One popular design played them sideways, with spring loaded arms again.)