Featured Phonograph № 13

[MordEth]

Thanks guys for all your comments....and there was I thinking that there wouldn't be anything to say about a humble table top machine

I was just thinking that there are probably a pretty decent percentage of people who started collecting with a table-top model...I know a few of them.

That might be an interesting poll question, although I’ll let someone else come up with general categories of machines for it.

— MordEth

[Ivor-Duncombe]

Hello Richard, A nice machine. It is a Model 6b HMV. The "b" was dropped when they did away with the motor-in-horn. At first I thought that the door hinges and knobs were not original, but in fact they are original - I've never seen one of these machines in real life but pictures and technical detail are available in "His Master's Gramophone" which is a very useful book to have. Strangely yours has the two-piece Model 6 winding handle, but I suppose that it fits. Your machine was manufactured between March and november 1915 during WW I. Due to scarcity and poor supply of some parts some Model 6s were minor variants. You machine seems to have fewer louvres (only 3 of them) than the Model 6b shown in HMG book. Apparently Victor patented the motor-in-horn design.

I hope this info helps.

[tinovanderzwan]

hmmm.. this machine combines two loves of mine phonographs and monty python john cleese was born in weston super mare
so whenever i hear that place name i think of cleese and how he hated that dull boring dreary place he couln't wait to get out!
his mother would live there for all her life she died some years back at the age of 101!
cleese said of her : '' she lived trhough the entire 20th century the century in wich the aeroplane, the car, the tv, the internet, multi social media where invented she lived trough 2 world wars and the development of modern democracy and...she din't get any of it!!''

1412864000919_Image_galleryImage_John_Cleese_SPECIAL_FEES_.JPG (48.02 KiB) Viewed 1187 times

tino

[Swing Band Heaven]

Hello Richard, A nice machine. It is a Model 6b HMV. The "b" was dropped when they did away with the motor-in-horn. At first I thought that the door hinges and knobs were not original, but in fact they are original - I've never seen one of these machines in real life but pictures and technical detail are available in "His Master's Gramophone" which is a very useful book to have. Strangely yours has the two-piece Model 6 winding handle, but I suppose that it fits. Your machine was manufactured between March and november 1915 during WW I. Due to scarcity and poor supply of some parts some Model 6s were minor variants. You machine seems to have fewer louvres (only 3 of them) than the Model 6b shown in HMG book. Apparently Victor patented the motor-in-horn design.

I hope this info helps.

Hi Ivor,
thank you for your comments and additional information regarding my HMV table model. I never knew the model number or when it was likely to of been manufactured - so I am very glad you were able to fill in some of the blanks for me. Although a small machine I think this one is really great - which is the main reason I have kept it all these years and when we moved to New Zealand in 2010 I still held onto it despite having to thin things down quite a bit for the move.

With regards the slats there are 5 - although it is difficult to see from the photo - they are very slender and seem to be much narrower than on other similar machines - although I have never seen one quite the same as mine since I bought it in 1984. It was a very lucky day for me when I was rummaging around in Philip Knightons shop in Wellington and I came across it in an upstairs store room

Regards
Richard (I changed my user name a few years ago but unfortunatley I couldn't link my new account to my old posts)