Playing bakelite 78rpm records

I don't know the answer to this, but weren't all 78 rpm records made from some brittle material that changed to vinyl when the speed changed to 45 and 33?
You could always get the records changed to CD or even digital.

The records themselves can be damaged by the stylus used. Gramophones used to have replacable steel needles that you were supposed to change every time you played a record! In reality they were replaced rather less often than that, of course, which is why old bakelite records so often sound really awful - when they were new they were much better. Blunt needles blunted the sound permanently and wrecked the record. I think you need to copy the music onto a way of playing it repeatedly without using the originals more than the once to copy them, but I don't know how you would do this. There are specialised websites for enthusiasts which would give you good advice.

Thanks both. The songs are on Youtube - I think I won't risk it.

I don’t know the answer either, but this topic makes me very nostalgic. We also had Trenet and Piaf, and all my childhood records were 78s. I remember with affection the little tin of gramophone needles. My records were mostly ballet music, but even five Swan Lake records were only a fraction of the ballet - I think a side lasted about three minutes.

You could use a modern stylus but it will damage the stylus and sound awful, a 1960s stylus had a much less sensitive range. Records can be copied and filtered so they sound better but it’s not going to be cheap, most of the well known 78 classics are available in modern format

Yes, we had a wind-up gramophone, a little tin of needles and my mum's old danceband records. The French ones were left by my stepmother though. I'll see if anyone wants them - I don't want to damage my nice new record player. Thank you for your help everyone!

Final update in case of interest – the manufacturers have now replied and say: "78RPM records can be played on the GPO Chesterton using the same stylus. The only difference is that most 78RPM records are made from shellac, which is a harder material that will wear the needle down a little faster than normal vinyl."