My HMV-101

[fran604g]

Hey folks!

I've been on a tear the past few days cleaning and maintaining my talking machines, and today was the Gramophone's turn to get a makeover.

Here's a video of it playing, "Be MY Love" sung by Mario Lanza on RCA Victor Red Label Record.
http://youtu.be/VywdxOjHeIg

I hope you enjoy it!
Fran

[fran604g]

Here is a quick look at when I first received the 101 and this morning, after cleaning her up yesterday. Not mint, by any stretch, but she runs fine and sounds very nice, especially considering I haven't replace the gaskets in the reproducer yet.

[epigramophone]

Some collectors claim that acoustic machines cannot cope with post war electrical recordings, but here is the proof that they are wrong.

Lanza's voice is a severe test for any soundbox, but yours has passed the test. Although it was not cheap when new, the HMV101 was one of the best selling portables of it's day and has a high survival rate here in the UK.

When rebuilding the No.4 soundbox, some UK collectors claim much improved sound quality by substituting a thinner than standard mica diaphragm mounted between individual soft gaskets instead of the original one piece gasket. I have no first hand experience of this modification, but it may be worth trying.

[Henry]

The Pride of South Philly, Alfred Cocozza! I own the same recording, and it sounds great on my XI. With a rebuild on your no. 4, you'll definitely squeeze the last ounce of fidelity out of yours as well. Nice looking machine, too!

[fran604g]

Some collectors claim that acoustic machines cannot cope with post war electrical recordings, but here is the proof that they are wrong.

Lanza's voice is a severe test for any soundbox, but yours has passed the test. Although it was not cheap when new, the HMV101 was one of the best selling portables of it's day and has a high survival rate here in the UK.

When rebuilding the No.4 soundbox, some UK collectors claim much improved sound quality by substituting a thinner than standard mica diaphragm mounted between individual soft gaskets instead of the original one piece gasket. I have no first hand experience of this modification, but it may be worth trying.

Thank you for the positive response! I was stunned when I played it for the first time after the cleansing.

The only thing that I did that definitely improved the sound, was taking the rubber soundbox mount off and immersing it in very hot water for a few minutes with the hope that it would become a bit more pliable and expand. It worked to some degree! Although not restored to it's original plasticity, it worked well enough to eliminate nearly all of the high frequency vibrations (shrillness) I was hearing before. I look forward to replacing the mica gasket, I will need to do a little research to find opinions on the best approach, thank you for your advice on that!

[fran604g]

The Pride of South Philly, Alfred Cocozza! I own the same recording, and it sounds great on my XI. With a rebuild on your no. 4, you'll definitely squeeze the last ounce of fidelity out of yours as well. Nice looking machine, too!

A nice little tidbit there! Thank you.
Fran

[soundgen]

How did you do that ! Step by step instructions please !

[fran604g]

How did you do that ! Step by step instructions please !

Probably not the "proper" way of doing this, but literally, all I did was tear down the machine and clean it with a rag and some "Miracle Wood Furniture Rejuvenator" that I have kicking around. It's just an oil based "orange" type furniture cleaning solution. It removed all of the dirt from the wood nicely, then I carefully tried some on a small section of the case, and liked the way it worked, so I did the entire case. On the wood motorboard, I made sure that I wiped off any excess oil and followed that up with some Pledge furniture polish, rubbing it in and buffing it by hand with a clean dry cotton rag.

I wiped all of the metal down with the oil, including the screw heads. Wherever I encountered rust, I used my dremel and a fine brass wire cone brush first. Basically all I did was remove the surface rust and wipe it down with a little oil. The remaining paint stayed and the rust was gone, MUCH better! I had to reform the latch parts, I did that with smooth jaw pliers and gently bent then back into their proper alignment. The crank handle was covered in rust and lost most of it's plating, so I did the same thing with the dremel, just to make it less hideous.

For the case, I will follow up with a much more thorough application of black shoe polish, in the near future, and I would like to replate the crank, it really needs it.

[soundgen]

Was this the stuff !

http://www.minwax.com/wood-products/mai ... or-reviver

[fran604g]

Was this the stuff !

http://www.minwax.com/wood-products/mai ... or-reviver

No, I don't think it's made anymore, it was distributed by Magic American Corporation, and is made out of Propylene Glycol Ester, Petroleum distillate, citrus extract and orange oil. I don't know if any of their current products are the same and they just rebranded them or not. It seems to work the same as Goo-gone (a petroleum product) only smells a lot better, and may be safer on wood, I don't know for certain.

It may be very similar to "Orange Glo" I have a bottle of that, too, and they seem to work similarly.