Out for a spin

By Denis Brown
December 16, 2004

Underground hip-hop DJs digging for old-school vinyl have inadvertently resurrected the portable record player.

Growing demand for vintage 1960s and 1970s portable record players has outstripped supply. Previously gathering dust in op shops, they are now hot commodities on eBay.

In the music documentary Scratch, underground US disc jockey, Z-Trip, whose debut CD Uneasy Listening Volume 1 mixes Martin Luther King jnr, Madonna and Metallica, listens to discs on his battered toy turntable in a record shop that's bigger than Texas.

"You'll be digging for breaks or vocal samples, bass lines or to weird children's records or whatever, but it's the whole art of building up an arsenal so that when you do go to a party you're different from the next guy," he explains.

Fortunately, turntable manufacturers Vestax and Numark produce portable battery-powered players a cut above the old Fisher Price models.

First on deck was the Japan-based Vestax's Handy Trax, launched in December 2002. This compact gadget is belt-driven and has pitch control, AC power, headphone jacks, removable head shell and cartridge. It operates at 33, 45 and 78 rpm.

While its built-in speaker is hardly likely to rock the house, the Handy Trax can be plugged into external sources, such as ghetto blasters.

US company Numark unveiled its PT-01 portable in February. Where the PT-01 differs is in size: slightly smaller, it fits snugly into a record bag or satchel.

Powered by six "D" batteries, the PT-01 will apparently spin records for a massive 45 hours, outlasting even the most energetic clubber.

The Handy Trax was released with a $600 price tag, but Vestax cut that to $250 after the PT-01's $245 release.

Although these two models are the only portables on sale here, Columbia's retro-looking GP-3B can be tracked down on US websites such as dustygroove.com priced at about $180.

Paul Goldsmith, Numark product manager at distributor Electric Factory Australia, says the PT-01 has become one the company's biggest selling products.

"They were primarily designed for DJs, for when they go record shopping, but there are a lot of other uses for them," he says.

"I take mine down the park for picnics, sit it in the corner and spin a few tunes. But you can also use it as a home turntable."

DJ Lance Harrison, 26, shop manager at DMC Records, in South Yarra, has found his PT-01 to be a handy tool at record fairs, but has also used it further afield. Earlier this year, he and some friends road-tested it at Elwood beach using a set of powered speakers.

"One of my mates had just come back from London with five boxes of old records, so we were playing everything from Blondie and old-school hip hop to trance," he says.

"We got a few odd looks from people but that didn't really worry us."

As for scratching on the PT-01, Harrison says he "wouldn't recommend it".

"The platter isn't as sturdy as a proper turntable," he says.

Portable record players first appeared with the launch of the Decca portable gramophone in 1914.

Featuring "bowl-in-lid" speaker amplification and a wind-up handle, the Decca was a godsend to homesick soldiers holed up in trenches during World War I. Its advertising slogan was "She will have music wherever she goes".