[llama]

Please don't take this the wrong way - you may be highly experienced in gramophones - but on the TV lately there have been gramophones displayed where the user is trying to play a record with the sound-box the "wrong side" of the player's spindle so the needle is trying to dig in to the disc rather than play it at a resting angle. Digging in would of course cause much more drag than the gently sloping contact point.

Hoping this is just an odd thought but in any case my comment could help other future readers.
Graham