The Bank Of England began circulating a new, smaller £5 note made of plastic polymer. While some of the earliest notes are fetching huge fees from collectors, it turns out they’re proving useful in other ways – particularly for vinyl enthusiasts.
It’s long been known that you can make a DIY gramophone with a needle and a cone of paper, but there’s a neat simplicity in the way a new fiver makes a nifty little needle for your record player. Its made possible due to the material and shape of the note, which enables it to hold its form and get in between the grooves on the record.
As it turns out, the new plastic five pound notes have a rather curious property of being just about able to play vinyl records with the aid of a contact microphone and an amplifier.
It doesn’t quite provide the ‘warmer’ tones that vinyl buyers often boast about, but its pretty mind-blowing nonetheless. Here, it’s demonstrated by YouTube user Michael Ridge, who uses the note to play the apt choice of Abba’s ‘Money Money Money’.
Among other oddities of the world of black records here's the revolutionary new turntable - it could mean you no longer need the clunky old turntable. of the living room and with this magic box, In fact, you will be able to carry a record player the size of a pack of cigarettes or a little more, wherever you go.
Take a look at this in action.
One of the biggest disadvantages of vinyl is the inconvenience of using it on the go.
With the exception of things like the now defunct Audio-Technica AT727 portable vinyl player, for listening to vinyl records anywhere outside of your living room this magic box was born, sure Hi Fi purists will spit on the floor and they will eat garlic as if they had seen a vampire, but these objects are also helping vinyl to be the protagonist again, as happened last week where, in England, there were more sales of black records than digital downloads.
