Bassanophone

[slippery]

Don't see these very often
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/301031883254? ... 1423.l2648

[soundgen]

Thank your God whoever he may be ( one of 3 thousand ) for that !

[FloridaClay]

An interesting tone arm design. I wonder how well it works.

Clay

[estott]

Very handsome case, but the arm looks like a piece of plumbing

[Steve]

The arm appears to be polished back to brass but should be nickel plated. The end piece is aluminium, hence the silver colour in the photo. The twin arm design simply pivots up and down at the joint with the straight arm. It is attached to a simple tube that slides into the longer arm. The tone-arm and soundbox are completely conventional in design; despite appearances and plenty of misinformation everywhere on the net, these are not "twin outlets" from the soundbox. The tubing from the back of the soundbox is actually quite a standard set-up, albeit uniquely angled and shaped. There is NO OUTLET from the front of the soundbox. These are conventional mica diaphragm soundboxes that simply have an aluminium fascia cast into an arm that is symmetrical with the REAL tone-arm behind the diaphragm. The "front arm" does nothing acoustically whatsoever. Inside the hollow tube which does not even seal against the front of the soundbox (there is a large cut-out where room for stylus bar movement is required) you can see the end where it connects to the straight arm joint. It is SEALED at this point. In other words even if the front arm was a "tone-arm" in the real sense, and was connected with a seal to the front of the diaphragm, the sound would hit a dead end and bounce back out again! So why this design? In my opinion, it might have been an adaptation of a planned twin entry tone-arm that didn't work. Maybe it was tooled up to be something else? We'll never find the answer, that's for sure.

Having said all that, what does it sound like? With a rebuilt soundbox, these machines sound absolutely amazing, far better than the HMV, Victor or Columbia contemporaries in the "Victrola" or "Gramophone Grand" style. The horns are made from lightweight sheet steel similar to much later HMV and Victor internal horns. The high frequency response is especially good and very clear. There might be some additional resonances due to the lack of a resilient isolator between the soundbox and the horn system. They are certainly LOUD anyway.

These machines are also fitted with the largest motor ever put into a domestic gramophone. They are highly nickel plated (a sign of quality) and although just two-springs, they can play up to 40 minutes on a single winding! The weight of the motor is such that there is an iron scaffold within the cabinet to support the motor above the horn. The "motor board" is nothing of the sort as the motor is not suspended from it. Maybe this allows sufficient isolation so the rubber insulators were deemed unnecessary? Maybe George Henry Bassano was simply avoiding patent infringements?

The motor is stopped automatically via an over-engineered auto-brake that actually stops the governor and not the turntable. All wonderful stuff.

This machine also has its legs and they appear to be original and in good condition. However, knowing the UK market for anything non-cylinder, portable or non-horn, this will probably stall at the £150 mark. That's a real shame. If this was an American machine exactly the same in the US market, it would probably fetch several thousand USD! Its pedigree, rarity, build quality, uniqueness and sound quality certainly put it into that rarified breed of cabinet machine that collectors might actually seriously appreciate. If only more was known about H.G.Bassano. I do know that he was already well beyond retirement age before he even designed this machine. His background was in telegraphic engineering.

For all the advances of this 1910 era machine, it will be "lost" by those collectors who see an uninspiring eBay listing of "Gram-A-phone" (sic.) and then view the one picture of a cabinet before quickly passing it over. Why doesn't the seller actually say what it is? The answer is right there in the lid!

Now if this was an early Ginn experiment the story would be very different and there would be a few well known collectors jumping all over it.

[FloridaClay]

For future reference, here are a couple of photos from the listing.

Clay

[Steve]

It's a mahogany inlaid cabinet, by the way. I'm not sure why the seller doesn't know this.

Any chance of adding the other pictures, Clay?

[Steve]

Can anyone else make out what that silver circular thing is next to the speed control?

[slippery]

I'll let you know when I collect it ....haha only jesting,I've still got all those 1A's to rebuild,but really this ought to be saved from being gutted by the chavvy chabby chicers and their gloopy grey paint.There cant be many left in the UK?

[CptBob]

I'll let you know when I collect it ....haha only jesting,I've still got all those 1A's to rebuild,but really this ought to be saved from being gutted by the chavvy chabby chicers and their gloopy grey paint.There cant be many left in the UK?

Lack of space, money and the inevitable reaction from my beloved are the only things preventing me from bidding.