A good find at a market, Windup Gramophone

[Bob T]

We went away the other weekend down the line to a coastal town in the Big Black Dodge and ran into a mate who told us of a small local car show on for the day, sweet   if you can fit a carshow in while away thats always a win.
Next to the show was the market where the locals all sell their stuff, usual art and craft and cakes etc but there was this old dude second hand trader type of guy playing this Gramophone at his stall.
I'd only seen one once before and was really impressed with the quality and the sound of it, also for the fact of it representing a bygone era and in good condition. Also to show my Daughter what used to be around before cd's/stereo/internet for music playing.
We haggled a bit and he threw in a big bag of needles and about 30 78's as well, man they are heavy - apparently a mixture of of limestone and slate
Its a His Masters Voice model 101 and from what I can find out on the net was made in England from 1927 to 1931

Got back to our bach and cranked it up with "Ghost Riders in the Sky'' Green Door'', "Tutti Fruitti'' and heaps of other stuff, some good some painfull. We went to a local second hand store the next day and got another 8 for $16 , cheaper than cd's  

My 8 year old Daughter likes it so much she wanted to use it for her 'News' at school to show her classmates what a Gramophone was so I made a clip of it. Turns out her Teacher had never seen one either haha


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv75vZ1kDZg

[skip68]

Sweet!   

[JB400]

Good find, nothing wrong with going retro

[Tilar]

That's pretty cool. I have an old Edison player that my great grandfather bought new. I think the date on it is 1916.  It still plays but I need to get a better reproducer, that or rebuild the one I have.

[Bob T]

That's pretty cool. I have an old Edison player that my great grandfather bought new. I think the date on it is 1916.  It still plays but I need to get a better reproducer, that or rebuild the one I have.

Cool, put up a few pics if you get a chance Tilar   
Its been an interesting hunt around the net for info and parts and models, man it just eats needles though - no wonder the guy gave me a big bag full. They are sacrificial to the record so the record lasts longer, only get 3 plays and then change the needle, how about yours? He gave me some copper and gold tipped ones that are supposed to be 30 plays.
Man its LOUD too, no volume control, hence the expression "put a sock in it" for the horn type ones 
Its neat though, I'll be taking along to the big weekender carshow that we stay at next January for some retro tunes  . ...think a new hobby/collecting gig for Phonographs is forming , need a horn one next haha

[Old Moparz]

That thing is in nice shape, what a cool find.  

Thirty something years ago, I drove past a neighbor's house when I still lived at my parent's home & spotted an old console unit brought out to the curb. I parked & walked back, knocked on the door & asked if it was being thrown out. It was, but looked so nice I found it hard to believe. It's not as old as what you just got, but I guess it goes back to at least the 1940's. It's an RCA model with an Art Deco look that has a turntable & a radio under the lid. The radio display has the actual call letters of the stations, not just numbers.

I came back with a hand truck & wheeled it home & plugged it in. All the lights came on, but when I moved it, the dried out & missing portion of the insulation on the wire let the wire short out. It completely died so I never got to see if the turntable worked, but I kept it hoping that one day I'd have an awesome looking piece to display somewhere. I have it covered & there are a few things on it so I can't get to it to take any photos, but hope to some day.  


edit.....

Since I know I can't get photos of mine for a while, I found a couple of a similar model. This one is less ornate & in sad shape. The major difference is that mine has narrow storage cabinets in the front on the sides of the speaker grille in the center. The lids & the top inside look very close.

[Tilar]

That's pretty cool. I have an old Edison player that my great grandfather bought new. I think the date on it is 1916.  It still plays but I need to get a better reproducer, that or rebuild the one I have.

Cool, put up a few pics if you get a chance Tilar   
Its been an interesting hunt around the net for info and parts and models, man it just eats needles though - no wonder the guy gave me a big bag full. They are sacrificial to the record so the record lasts longer, only get 3 plays and then change the needle, how about yours? He gave me some copper and gold tipped ones that are supposed to be 30 plays.
Man its LOUD too, no volume control, hence the expression "put a sock in it" for the horn type ones 
Its neat though, I'll be taking along to the big weekender carshow that we stay at next January for some retro tunes  . ...think a new hobby/collecting gig for Phonographs is forming , need a horn one next haha

I'll try to get it out today. It's in a dark corner of the basement so I'll put it around some lights and maybe get a video of it playing.  Mine doesn't use a replaceable needle so to speak, at least not without a lot of work. This is what my reproducer looks like, and I do need one.  http://www.ebay.com/itm/Edison-Diamond-Disc-Dance-Reproducer-Rebuilt-/181000651314?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a247ac232

Mine also has, for lack of better words a "Volume control" What it is, is a fuzzy ball hooked on with a cable that goes to a lever up above. What it does is push the ball up into the speaker to muffle the sound a bit.  I'll try to get a decent pic of that too.

[Bob T]

That thing is in nice shape, what a cool find.  

Thirty something years ago, I drove past a neighbor's house when I still lived at my parent's home & spotted an old console unit brought out to the curb. I parked & walked back, knocked on the door & asked if it was being thrown out. It was, but looked so nice I found it hard to believe. It's not as old as what you just got, but I guess it goes back to at least the 1940's. It's an RCA model with an Art Deco look that has a turntable & a radio under the lid. The radio display has the actual call letters of the stations, not just numbers.


edit.....

Since I know I can't get photos of mine for a while, I found a couple of a similar model. This one is less ornate & in sad shape. The major difference is that mine has narrow storage cabinets in the front on the sides of the speaker grille in the center. The lids & the top inside look very close.

If it looks similar to that one, it would be a nice looking unit. Likely it would be more of a top end price with the radio & controls in there too.
A friend of mine has a wooden framed box type valve Radiogramme with the woven front speaker grilles and the glass plate etched with the station callouts and the black bakelite knobs on the front, it looks a treat. It didnt work when he got it and had no intention of making it work - no AM stations around anyway, so he opened it up, gutted the internals and installed a Ipod base and big speaker and it is known as the Igramme , classic  It gets trotted out to carshows and parked up next to the 50's Fin cars 

That's pretty cool. I have an old Edison player that my great grandfather bought new. I think the date on it is 1916.  It still plays but I need to get a better reproducer, that or rebuild the one I have.

Cool, put up a few pics if you get a chance Tilar   
Its been an interesting hunt around the net for info and parts and models, man it just eats needles though - no wonder the guy gave me a big bag full. They are sacrificial to the record so the record lasts longer, only get 3 plays and then change the needle, how about yours? He gave me some copper and gold tipped ones that are supposed to be 30 plays.
Man its LOUD too, no volume control, hence the expression "put a sock in it" for the horn type ones 
Its neat though, I'll be taking along to the big weekender carshow that we stay at next January for some retro tunes  . ...think a new hobby/collecting gig for Phonographs is forming , need a horn one next haha

I'll try to get it out today. It's in a dark corner of the basement so I'll put it around some lights and maybe get a video of it playing.  Mine doesn't use a replaceable needle so to speak, at least not without a lot of work. This is what my reproducer looks like, and I do need one.  http://www.ebay.com/itm/Edison-Diamond-Disc-Dance-Reproducer-Rebuilt-/181000651314?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a247ac232

Mine also has, for lack of better words a "Volume control" What it is, is a fuzzy ball hooked on with a cable that goes to a lever up above. What it does is push the ball up into the speaker to muffle the sound a bit.  I'll try to get a decent pic of that too.

Haha, fuzzy ball sound muffler, not bad, likely the bean counters were squeezing the design departments nuts for a low cost solution to volume control
Have a look around the net  for parts or specialist repairers, maybe it would be cheaper than the $200 on ebay>
This guy has some interesting info in general, mainly HMV stuff though as his is UK based

http://www.gramophones.info/graminformation.html

[Tilar]

I got it moved out today, cleaned it up a bit and got a few pics and a short video. It doesn't play because of the reproducer string being broke. I did find a new diaphram on ebay for $13, so I bought it. Maybe i'm smart enought to fix it. 

As sucky as it is, I did get a short video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzffSlLpOnA


Here are a few pics.













This is that fuzzy ball that sorta acts like a volume control.

[Bob T]

I got it moved out today, cleaned it up a bit and got a few pics and a short video. It doesn't play because of the reproducer string being broke. I did find a new diaphram on ebay for $13, so I bought it. Maybe i'm smart enought to fix it.  

As sucky as it is, I did get a short video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzffSlLpOnA

Hey, Thanks for going to the trouble to do a short clip Tilar, pretty cool Gram. Hell yes, get it fixed  .
I think its neat that you Great Grandfather brought it new and here it is nearly 100 years later and it damn well turns and is in pretty good condition . Hope you have plenty of needles for it though, like I said, man they just eat them. Must be a few  'how to tips' on the net for repairs.

I heard something rattling around in my one and after turning it every way around for a few minutes, out popped a small tin box of Decca needles that had fallen inside the sound hole and stayed in there for eons. " Made of finest Sheffield Steel". They are rusty as though and unsuable but I'll clean up the tin to use for the new ones when we take it away.

Played it for some friends when they came around the other nightt, I can see the merits of the ''fuzzy ball' volume control, they were nearly shouting to be heard over it in a room with the doors closed 

[Tilar]

When I get the parts and get it fixed, I'll do another short video of it playing... If in fact it will play when I get done with it. Since it doesnt have a carburetor or a fuel injector pump, I'm not real confident.  

I have quite a few of those needles but the reproducer that mine has doesn't use them, I think it has a diamond tip. I do have a piece that I could connect a head that would use those needles though, maybe I'll try to find one.