I was just curious, but does anyone out there but me collect primarily 45 rpm records? I mention this because when someone says that they collect "vinyl", they usually mean albums. I collect 45's because based upon my experience, I find both the sound quality and the content of a 45 single to generally superior than that of their album counterpart. Albums just don't seem to carry the same bass response as the 45, perhaps because of the depth and proximity of the grooves to eachother. I also look at albums, and tend to see quite a bit of filler material ( depending on the artist, of course, as many artists such as the Beatles had little to no filler material on each album), while on the album's 45 counter part, both songs tend to be absolutely great! These are just my thoughts on the subject, and I'm curious to see if anyone agrees.

Don't know if this counts but I still have 45's I bought in my teenage years in the original carring case.

Not a lot because I started buying albums in the late 60's early 70's

My Beatles 45's are "Don't Let Me Down" with "Get Back" on the flip side.
"Hey Jude" with "Revolution" on the flip side.

some others

Foot In Cold Water
Golden Earring
Hendrix
Neil Young
The Ronettes

to name a few

My 45's were played on low budget portable record players so their sound quality degraded over time, I think the albums sounded much better as I was working my way up with a better quality stereo system.

In many cases, the mix on the mono 45 was the better version. A great example of this is "Revolution" by The Beatles. On the 45, the drums are right up front and it rocks up a storm. John Lennon said of the stereo mix of Revolution; "They took a heavy record and turned it into a piece of ice cream."

Another great example is the mono 45 of Jimi Hendrix' version of Bob Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower", the guitar solo is mixed very differently.

Hot on the heels of the vinyl revolution is also the somewhat smaller but still decent period jukebox revitalization - so more and more guys (or in some cases their grandsons etc) are getting into 45s.

Grand-niece and-nephew got into 45s when I restored their grandmother's Fisher Price floating cartridge phonograph last year and gave the kids all our old storybook 45s from the 60s and 70s. Now they have their late great grandmother's Zenith Microtouch she had in college in the 60s after they graduated out of the FP version.

Now I'm having a Wurlitzer 2600 chassis put into a 3100 case so that I can have the drive shaft recut to be able to play all the 7-inch kiddie 78s that my sister and I keep dragging through move after move - that nothing else will play but the jukebox and the Zenith.

Since the 45s and 7-inch 78s are too raunchy to play on the Zenith even tho they have LP groove - they play fine on the Wurlitzer.

Personally me I like all the oddball 7-inch - - 16 (big or small hole) that gets lost in stacks of 45s along with the odd small hole 33 or even odder large hole 33 -

the large hole 78s

and colored vinyl and records that play inside out or left handed etc etc etc.

I'm continually amazed at what shows up on my porch or thru the mail when the e.g. jukebox guys get a huge haul of 7-inch and they don't have a 2-speed jukebox.

Wherever they get them from I dunno - probably guys with no interest that just get em by the boatload off radio stations, record producers or other similar endeavours - then the jukebox guys get em - especially the 7 inch small hole 33 LPs - that they don't know don't want and don't care about.

Same w the 7 inch 78s and promo discs and all the other oddities.

I'm thinking abt doing a 16-only out of a Seeburg from the 60s - and then a buddy of mine has a SL of Highway Hi Fi 16 RPM w the ultra MG stylus - and I found a guy who won't charge me a mint and a half to put `em on Seeburg T stylus cantilevers - so I'd do one for that and one for the normal one-mil.

So there's lots of 45 guys out there you just ain't run into em yet.

Whenever I find myself in a place selling records, I always go through the 45s first. That is where there is the best chance of finding something obscure or that hasn't been mucked with in the LP or CD versions.

I have been collecting 45 rpm records for about 50 years, and now have around 7,000. I never stopped listening to the music of the 50s and 60s, and program my Part 15 station with it.

I used to collect 45's, but stopped when I had accumulated pretty much all that I wanted. Mostly pop/rock/R&B from '53 to about '64. I guess maybe one-two thousand or so.

I started collecting 45s in the early 70s. Over the years I have had 7-8 thousand or so, but now am down to about a thousand, most of which is doo wop/vocal groups of the late 50s-early 60s. I have sold many over the years, some rare. I had all 5 of Elvis' Sun releases that I sold in 1976 before he died for $1000. Now they would be worth at least 5 times that or more. My interest now is just the doo wop/vocal groups....I buy some here and there on ebay if the price is right and still scour thrift stores and yard sales locally as well as attending area record shows. Dont find 'em like I used to.

I also collect 45s and have for years. Some of what I have were acquired years ago when a local radio station switched from what was then Top 40 to all talk. They unloaded their library of "Oldies" (Mostly 50s - 60s Pop and DooWop) to a couple of us who knew some of the guys who worked there. Besides the common "hits" of the day there were a lot of records by artists who never quite made the charts. (DJ Copies, Promotional, etc.) All are in VG condition and spurred my interest over the years to keep searching. Although I don't quite do as much trading, buying, selling as I used to!

I haven't gotten any rock and roll 45s for years; still have the 20 or so I bought in the 60s. I do, however, have a small collection of Jackie Gleason Orchestra 45 EP sets. And a few Dave Brubeck, and others that fit in to my interest range.
RW

Well I must have around 5000-6000 45s . Started in the 1950s to the 1990s. Probably going to sell some no time to listen to them.

I have a couple dozen 45s from when I was a teenager that I still occasionally listen to. I also have a box of 45s my brother gave me - maybe 3-400? - which I've never really looked at. They are dirty and aren't in sleeves. One day I will clean them up and check them out. I plan on buying a record washing machine at some point, will probably do it then, otherwise it's a lot of time consuming labor.

Interesting the comments on stereo versus mono. Previous generations didn't really need high bandwidth on LPs, but with the advent of CDs and electronic music it has become fairly commonplace to have a strong bass track, even subsonics in a recording. Record engineers can vary the spacing between the grooves on an LP, and do that commonly now to make room for a strong bass track. Albums with multiple 12 inch 45 RPM disks are not uncommon either - it seems some of the new artists like it better.

I have several thousand 45s and have been collecting them since the 1980s. I started when I got my first Seeburg R jukebox. Now I have 8 1950s jukes but I only fill them with common, easy to find records. I have lots of more collectible 45s and picture sleeves that are stored in carrying cases.

I just have one Wurlitzer. The 50 carousel slots are wide enough that I've taped A side records back to back, to provide 100 good songs. I of course use either oldies reprinted records, or given that I'll have more than one of each song, the one in the lesser condition.
Jeez, haven't played the damn thing in ages. I listen to MP3's on my hard drive now, or YouTube, "50's on 5" Sirius/XM, OTA KSUR/1260, or KYNO's stream on my internet radio.

I have always been a "45 guy" ever since I was very young when my mom gave me her old 45-EY-2 in the late 1950's. My collection really started to grow in the 70's when I began buying new 45's for about $1 each. By the early 1990's I was adding to my collection by going to antique shops, flea markets and auctions. I don't know for sure how many 45's I have, but I estimate 15,000 plus. I have a lot of duplicates which happens when I buy boxes of 45's at auctions. And yes, I do listen to them. I recently pulled a big box of 45's out of a closet and have been listening to them both sides. Lots of great songs that are "new" to me. The best player for listening to old 45's are the old RCA 45 rpm players. They sound great and the changers are fast and rarely fail to drop a record.

I used to have one of those RCA 45 players. Nice little player. Sorry I ever gave it up.

I still have my most of my 45s that I bought in the 1960s (including my first 45: Yellow Submarine/Eleanor Rigby). They're in rough shape, but have a lot of sentimental value. Over the years, I have tracked down near-mint replacements for them. I now have several hundred, mostly from the 1960s/70s ( a few from the '50s). In fact, I was in a used record shop today, and purchased a few 45s (and a CD).

I don't collect 45s per se, but I do have some from when I was younger and have added to them over the years. Once I got an RCA 45 player and made it stereo I started looking for 45s again so I would have more to play on it.

I have 45's and LP's. Most of the 45's I have are songs I don't have on albums. I agree that the sound of 45's is better, but I attribute that to the speed. Just as with my Reel to Reel tapes, the faster the speed of the recording, the clearer the sound, IMHO....

I find it interesting that some say 45's sound better than albums. I always thought it was the other way around. Partly because a majority of the 45's are on styrene, and also because most were "recorded hot" so they would be loud on cheap record players. As a result they tend to have more distortion, especially if they've been played a number of times. Needle "chatter" is also more noticeable on 45's. I've felt that the better quality vinyl used on albums is more forgiving, and they continue to sound good after many plays. Just my thoughts on this.