Showerthought: asked a guy at the record fair how he stores his 78s and it hit different

He said he keeps them flat in acid-free boxes, not on shelves, because the weight of stacking vinyl over 50 years can actually warp the grooves. I always thought stacking was fine but now I'm rethinking my whole setup after he showed me a 1940s Brunswick that was totally cracked from bad storage. Any other 78 collectors have a favorite storage hack?

2 comments

2 Comments

markm2722d ago

Yeah I read somewhere that storing 78s flat is actually the oldest trick in the book. My grandad had a bunch of old jazz records and he kept them stacked like pancakes on top of each other and they all ended up with a slight bend in them. The weight thing makes total sense when you think about how heavy those shellac discs are compared to modern vinyl. I started using those square acid-free boxes from a local art supply store because they stack perfectly without crushing the records inside. Also heard that you should never lean them against anything either, that puts too much pressure on the edges.

olivia_webb22d ago

So I've been stacking mine like a total AMATEUR for years and wondering why my old blues records sound like they're underwater. Guess I'll be investing in some boxes and pretending I knew what I was doing all along.