The history of the 45 adaptor

Then there's this.... (Southern Rhodesia issue)

 

Here's a pretty exhaustive site on the topic of 45 adapters - 45 Record Adapters | …you know, those little "plastic things" you put in 45 records.

 

As I collect Kinks UK singles on Pye i always wanted to know the story about how and when the solid centres came in or if there was a time they were concurrent?

 

As I was quoted above the centers were removable for using in jukebox play. And nope. I would not even consider removing the "build in adapter". Its kind of funny that by the 80's that UK (and other) 7" were made without the "punch out" and contained the small spindle hole like the 12". And to this day many 7" releases are that way. Even the US made ones.

 

Techmoan just posted a video on the LP vs single format war, thought it would fit here.

 

Beat me to it, when I saw this on his page.

Interesting video and a few things I didn't know about with the LP / 45.

 

After a certain point jukebox play was the only practical reason for the large hole, which is presumably why it remained US standard through the peak vinyl era. Nowadays vinyl jukeboxes wouldn't be a consideration and that was no doubt the same thinking for the indie/punk labels that ditched the large hole in the earlier era.

 

mmmmm!
I love adaptor's so much, I own one of these:

 

Another tool we jukebox users need, anyone wanna guess?

 

As a British teen and young man I bought hundreds of used 45s in the 1980s. Only ever saw one with the center punched out, "All Day and All of the Night" by the Kinks. Probably from a jukebox.

 

That techmoan video should be required material for this thread

 

I had 45 spiders printed as business cards and hand them out routinely- i get a couple of reactions: what is this? or OMG, I remember these!
(Mine also glow in the dark, which may not be good if you are a ninja).

 

I was happy to adopt the adapt!

 

The star shaped ones were more popular here

 

Gosh I have bunches of them!
I wonder as well, Germany...Australia?
How can I have those?
Then, others will know more but,
we had so much music come into our country.....
Thinking about wars etc etc and a new found living place.
Always find German records with these adapters.
I tend to buy them too, especially if i see a songwriters name i recognize.

 

You don't want those. Many records have been warped with them in, and they're dangerous and very risky to remove. Many a high $$$ R&B, DooWop, Popcorn, or some Northern Soul record got cracked, broken, warped or otherwise disfigured when removed, sometimes it's pieces right out of the area around the hole. Can take a NM copy all the way to Fair easily. Record collectors and dealers hate seeing them.

 

I recall once having difficulty removing one safely and needing some care and patience to not cause damage!

 

I did on occasions when the record was off-centre. Especially when I had access to a bench-mounted dinker and could do it before I bought the record. Since I buy records for listening to and not for their resale value, it seemed a sensible thing to do.

 

And it was too little, too late. They bombed, and RCA lost a huge amount of money they didn't need to lose. If the RCA Selectavision CED Videodisc had been released in 1973, or 1974 it would have been a legitimate hit. By the time RCA released it, VHS VCR prices were affordable for the average family, the price of VHS movies was more affordable, and the VCR could record. The CED videodisc was inferior to the LaserDisc, which was the videophile format. So CED, didn't have the videophiles to fall back on.

 

That one was obviously a German pressing. I just googled and linked the first good photo of a star adapter I found. That it was a Beatles record is just a coincidence.

Must be older ones then. My parents had some 45s from the 60s with star shaped adapters, some with adverts for a shoe store chain aimed at children which I liked (below). They're unfortunately gone. When I became a teenager, pop and rock singles were sold without adapters which first puzzled me because all I knew that they were sold with one, but you could buy adapters separately and later turntables with built-in adapter became widespread.

 

I remember when Dad got one of these. I thought it was just to cool.

 

Those centres were used in the UK in the 60s and 70s by Philips, Polydor and their subsidiary labels, e.g. Track, Vertigo, Mercury, Fontana. These labels appeared to press their singles with both small and large centre holes.

Other labels using the same centres (and probably the same pressing plant) included Island (in the days of the pink label).

Their usage appeared to be discontinued when the combined Polygram switched to injection mould pressings around 1972.

 

I have such triangle shaped adapter on a British 45 pressing of Eddie Cochran's 'C'mon Everybody' (London Records).

 

Would be cool if Techmoan is a forum member here.