You can use any brand needle in the older Singers but the Singer brand of needles are a tiny big different in length. It makes a difference. Measure a Singer needle to a Schmetz and you'll see. Singer makes two different quality of needles. I don't understand that at all either. One is much cheaper then the other but both have the Singer name. Singer seems to have a cheap line of everything and a high end line of everything. That's why some love the Singer products and some hate them. One is excellent, the other is crap.