What Kind of HMV is This???

[JerryVan]

I picked this up at an auction several years ago. It had the wrong motor in it, now gone, and I gave up trying to figure out what model it is and what motor it needs. I sure would like to find out however. Can anyone help? Also, what reproducer? Not sure if the turntable is correct either. No sign of a decal on the horn and the green paint looks very original. ?????

[Steve]

Jerry, it's a Model 34 and is believed to have had a single spring No. 69 motor. The soundbox should be a No. 4 (HMV) and yes, that turntable is absolutely nothing to do with this machine.

HTH

Steve

[JerryVan]

Steve,

Do you have a photo of a No. 69 motor? I am assuming the turntable would the standard issue Victor/HMV style?

Thanks for your help!

[Steve]

Jerry

You're very welcome!

The turntable would be a "standard" pressed steel, straight edged 10" type with brown baize, identical to those seen on most of the HMV portables of the day, particularly the pre-1929 101 ie. it should be NICKEL plated and not chromium plated as all of the post 1929 examples will be. One caveat to this: it appears your tone-arm might be nickel but this is a late machine made in India, maybe into the 1940's? Your picture is quite dark so it's difficult to tell but if the arm is actually chrome then obviously the other fittings including t/table will also be matching chrome.

Sadly I have never seen a '69' motor either. It must have also been fitted to some portable machines, which ones I couldn't say. I know the late 101's had a '59' motor and HMV did stamp the numbers into the base-plates so it should be possible to identify an example if it should come along.

Can anyone else throw any light on this?

BTW, I should perhaps point out that the information provided above has been sourced from the book "His Master's Gramophone" by Proudfoot & Oakley.

Steve

[epigramophone]

The No.69 motor is a larger version of the No.59, and both motors are recognisable by their metal dust covers.

The No.69 motor was fitted to the 103(from late 1928) and 104 table models. An otherwise poor example of either machine would be the most likely source of this motor, at least in the UK where they survive in reasonable numbers.

The turntable and speed control presently fitted to Jerry's machine appear to be of Garrard origin.

[Retrograde]

Jerry, by the looks of that motor board, this could be a Swiss machine
I think the Beatles wrote a line in a song about this very machine... "now we know how many holes it takes to fill the HMV motor board"

[Steve]

LOL! Can we have a game of "Guess Which Hole The Spindle Goes Through" and the winner gets the machine?!

[kirtley2012]

its the biggest hole in the middle... yey i win
i have a hmv 31, they are very nice machines indeed!, the horn on mine was previously repainted to black, i scraped off part of the paint and i found some green paint like on yours!, i can finally repaint it to the original colour!
mine had a hmv no.4 soundbox and 32 motor, here is a thread about these machines:

[Link Removed]

[JerryVan]

Yes, it's had its share of motor swaps over the years. It looks like the crank hole has only been moved once which I find surprising.

As near as I can tell with all the dirt, it looks like the tonearm is nickle plated.

The speed control quadrant appears to have been there for a very long time. I can see no other screw holes or traces of any other piece ever having been fitted. Same with the brake.

Any more suggestions, photos etc. would be great. Thanks to all for the help so far.

[JerryVan]

Kirtley,

Thanks for your posting. I would love to see the link you added but it won't open....