Last weekend I stopped by my local record store and started digging through 45s. I was looking for obscure (or least obscure to me) releases that I could add to my collection.
I stumbled on the bright yellow Loma 45 above and didn’t recognize the name, Linda Jones. To me it sounded like a country singer (living in Nashville I find a ton of random country stuff) but I did a quick scan online and realized it was soul related and I quickly added it to my stack.
At the beginning of 2019, I purchased around 1,000 45s from a lady who was moving. She had a jukebox for years and even though she had since sold it, she kept moving the boxes of 45s with her to each new location. Now she was ready to let them go.
One of the first 45s that jumped out to me had a green label with Alston written across the top and the song title Funky Nassau by The Beginning of the End. That quickly became a favorite in my 45 collection and now I keep my eye open for Alston 45s whenever I’m out shopping.
As I mentioned last week, I bought over 200 hundred 45s at a local record store for .50 cents each. There were boxes and boxes of 45s and at some point I simply set any aside with familiar labels to gamble on.
The above 45 by J.P. Robinson on Alston was one of those gambles.
As I mentioned last Friday, I recently purchased almost 300 45s at a 50 cent warehouse sale that took place at one of my favorite local Nashville record stores.
I’m always drawn to white label promo 45s and the above label jumped out quickly while digging through boxes of 45s. I think the bold capitalized SOUL is what grabbed my attention at first.
I wasn’t familiar with The Originals and wasn’t sure if the song title would be a love song or maybe more gospel soul related. For 50 cents I easily added it to my large stack of purchases to bring home.
Last summer I bought a Sansui G-6000 receiver off Craigslist that smelled like cigarette smoke. After a lot of research online and various tests at home, I found the easiest way to get rid of the smell was the one that simply required the most patience.
How do I remove cigarette smoke smell from receivers and electronics?
The easiest way to remove the smell of smoke from electronics is to dissemble the unit by removing the top case from the receiver and let them both sit in the sun for up to 6 hours a day for a period of 3 to 4 days, depending on the severity of the smell.
The sun will remove the smell much better than applying liquid cleaners or sprays to the unit.
The key to getting the best results is to remove the top case from the unit so the sun can penetrate inside the unit as well. You want both the inside of the unit and the top case to be exposed to the sunlight.
I found it took 3 to 4 days to full remove the smell from my unit, but it make take more time or less time sitting outside for you, depending on just how strong the smell was originally.
There are several reasons why your turntable or record player might sound bad, weird or distorted. We will look at each reason below and provide advice on how to fix the issue so you can get back to listening to your vinyl records with the best sound possible.
Record players or turntables sound bad, weird or distorted due to these five issues:
The needle (aka stylus) is dirty, worn or broken and needs to be replaced.
The record player is not sitting on a level surface and causing inner groove distortion.
The belt on your turntable is loose, not operating at the proper speed and needs to be replaced.
Your turntable is not properly grounded and causing humming or buzzing noises.
Your turntable’s built in preamp is on the wrong setting.
Read below for instructions on how to solve each issue listed above.
Last weekend one of our local Nashville record stores had a warehouse sale where everything was priced 50 cents each. Upon arrival, I walked back to the rear of the record store and entered through a door that led to a huge room filled with stacks of comics, books, records, CDs and, my favorite, boxes of 45s. Everything was 50 cents each!
I spent three hours flipping through boxes of 45s where I hoped to find some gems for my collection. I left the store that day with a box full of 269 45s including music of all genres, from reggae to R&B to country.
One of the 45s I took a “gamble” on (pun intended, sorry) was a 45 by the Intruders called Pray For Me released in 1970 on Gamble Records. It first caught my eye because it was a white label DJ promo copy with the same song on both sides, one version in mono, the other side in stereo.
But the song title, Pray For Me, also intrigued me. I love collecting gospel soul records from the 1960s – 70s and I was curious if this might fit within that genre. I had found a few other gospel soul 45s at the sale that day so I added this one to the stacks and hoped for the best.
