Placing A Coin On A Tonearm To Prevent Skipping
| Field | Vinyl disk (record) media playing |
| Went Obsolete | About the time tone-arm balancing became incorporated in disk players. |
| Made Obsolete By | tonearm balancing gadget |
| Knowledge Assumed | A light touch and sensitive ear. |
| When useful | When using an old two-speed (33/45 rpm) record player with a one piece tone-arm. |
If the weight was too much the sound would come out dead and low frequency-ish. Plus the sound track in the vinyl would be “melted” out faster.
The French have made a special reader of archival record (even broken one) that uses a single optic fiber whisker that lightly touches the very bottom of the groove, bypassing the damaged upper part of the groove wall, and which end movement can be read by light detector.
I'd use a dime or penny, depending upon how much weight one needed. Use a “scotch tape” rolled up glue side out between the coin and the tone-arm to keep it there.
