It has long been suggested that I write a book. . . but the information still materialises at a speed which might be likened to that of computer technology which carries the proposition that: by the time you've got it home and plugged it in, it is already obsolete! Continuing investment in available new technology is no longer financially practicable with advancing years and largely my equipment is extremely basic and, in evolution, inexpensive. Much of my work is done in analogue form in which domain I have developed methods not applicable to the digital. . . rather than a case of old dog and new tricks. Turntable: Goldring-Lenco GL75 (mounted not as the manufacturer intended) which offers near-universal speed/pitch facilitating adjustment usually to "New Philharmonic" C=522/523 c/s or (for brass bands in earlier recordings) "Old Philharmonic" C=537 c/s. . . or, rarely, "Steinway" C=517 c/s. Pick-up arm: Linn Ittok 12" (whose rigidity--pivot to stylus--allows opportunity of un-smeared upper frequency separation) with Cartridge: Shure M-44 (not, perhaps, the greatest tracing ability but an indestructible work-horse) and others for specialist purposes. Pre-amplifier of my own design (whose attributes could fill another chapter). Main (monitor) amplifier: Leak TL12 (outstanding at its time more than half a century ago and even more so with the introduction of some more modern components). Speakers: 10" Golden Warfedale (advantage of single-source reproduction despite 70-year-old design and range short-comings. . . There are others which I would prefer but which require more space than available). Analogue tape: Telefunken M-24 (of which I have three). This machine, dating from c. 1960 and now needing considerable "nursing" is not only a fine recorder but is more importantly the greatest editing machine of its kind. More recently added are various digital items. Still an important adjunct is a gadget which I call "the decerealiser" which enables me to remove snap-crackle-and-pop as well as modifying unwanted noise in the analogue domain; its function, based on the principle of violin string and bow, would require another couple of chapters to extoll!

Could you talk about your work as a sound engineer?

Discussion of recording methods, equalisation, cross-overs could occupy an entire second book. To talk about my work as a sound engineer might be difficult; ask a centipede in which order it moves its legs and it will inevitably fall over!

What recommendations do you have about styli?

Some of your questions are perennials such as dimensions and shapes of styli appropriate to particular makes of record. There ARE NO useful RULES although there may be a few guiding generalities; experiment must be the order of each day and experience and perception will indicate direction. There seems to have been no standardisation in the creation of cutting styli until after WW2 and, even then, variables of accident as well as particle adhesion, material (of both cutter and matrix) and temperature will affect a finished groove to be encountered by the tracing stylus. So where do we start? Even two pressings of ostensibly the same recording may be needful of differing treatment. Discussion of the advantages of shapes and cants would require a whole chapter!