THE GREAT MULLARD MAGIC BLOG

I had to laugh when I saw this vintage Valentine's card which incidentally was given by an ex WW2 commando to his beloved some time in the early 1950's Sweet isn't it but hey, look at that knife.... here's a close up look see-->>>>> Just look at that length of blade and the characteristic oval wave cross guard and I have to ask whether or not there was a mixed message from the giver of this card.   Affectionados of WW2, SOE, commandos and all that will no doubt see  what I see for the knife is I believe a Fairbairn-Sykes...

OK, so you have your master tape - check, so, how do we get from this to a vinyl record then?  Let's for the moment ignore the Direct Metal Master (DMM) process and stick with the more traditional blank acetate process which starts with a circular aluminium blank of 2mm thick aluminium in a diameter choice of either 16. 12.5, 10.5 & 7.5 inches.  This is taken and one side of it is mechanically polished until a 1P non directional polished reflective finish has been achieved.   Following polishing, the disc is carefully degreased using a three stage process that uses an ethoxylate...

Take a look at this wonderfully howl-worthy cinema advert, made by Mullard for the Australian market and screened during 1937. I am not sure which part I like the best, could it be the tramp like persona at the start of the film which reminds me of how I look when I get up, rush to the iMAc to see what orders have been placed, there again could it be the camp persona right at the end of the film.     All of these well observed and beautifully acted tableaus feature Jack Davey who, although a Kiwi, rose to...

Assumed to be long dead by many and certainly so in a domestic setting, the end of the Sony Betamax tape format is nigh as Sony will officially end production of the tapes in March, 40 years after the product was introduced into the domestic market. Interestingly, Sony made its last Betamax video recorder in 2002 some 14 years hence. So please, be on notice that as of March 2016, brand new Betamax cassettes with model number EL-500B, 2L-500MHGB, 2L-750MHGB as well as the L-25CLP cleaning tape will no longer be available.     Sony first launched its Betamax products...

Vinyl revival is a term that is frequently bandied about by the media on radio, TV as well as the music press to describe the renewed interest in listening to vinyl gramophone records that commenced at the start of 2007. Currently, vinyl records make up approximately 5% of overall music sales with digital downloads taking the largest slice of this market. That said, a total of 1.4 million vinyl records had been sold in the UK during 2015, volumes not seen for at least 20 years!!    So, what is a vinyl record, well, it’s a record made out of polymerized...