What's your favorite Phonograph?

[Valecnik]

That 202 sounds grand!

No disagreement here. Fantastic sounding gramophone!

[beaumonde]

I don't believe the original poster mentioned anything about fire, just which was the favorite...

It's a toss-up for me, I think, between my tooled leather panel 8-30X and my Victor VI. Or maybe the Victor V with serpentine oak cabinet?

[edison phonographs]

I personally would love to get my hands on two things if I won the lottery; a nickelodeon player piano with a violin inside of it and an Edison Opera with wooden music master horn.
With the recent addition of our 2 ½ month old little girl, I suspect it will be quite a while before either of those happen!

[JohnM]

The Mills Novelty Company of Chicago made an all-electric violin/piano called the Violano-Virtuoso. They use a 44-note piano and were made in single- and double-violin models, as well as string quartets with viola and cello added, and even optional percussion units.

Ludwig Hupfeld AG of Germany produced the Phonoliszt Violina. These are all-pneumatically actuated systems driven by an electric pump. The piano portion consists of an 88-note reproducing piano; and the violin is actually three violins mounted upside down and surrounded by a rotating circular horsehair bow. The bow has variable speed of rotations and plays only one string on each violin. The violins are pushed forward against the bow by a pneumatic.

There were many more Phonoliszts built than Violano-Virtuosos, but due to the delicacy of the mechanisms, most were scrapped when they ceased to work. The robust Mills instruments survived in much greater numbers. A Mills can be had for about $25K or so, but a Phonoliszt will set you back ten times that much if you could even find one!

There are videos of both types of violin players on YouTube:

Violano Virtuoso [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5i1sRc_CSk[/youtube]

Phonoliszt [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUBQMl4ZiAg[/youtube]

Now . . . which one do you prefer?

[Valecnik]

I don't believe the original poster mentioned anything about fire, just which was the favorite...

It's a toss-up for me, I think, between my tooled leather panel 8-30X and my Victor VI. Or maybe the Victor V with serpentine oak cabinet?

I can see why you have a tough choice. All three machines are beautiful and very clean. Is the horn on the VI original? I've never seen one so clean.

Thanks, bruce

[Steve]

That's what I was also wondering. If it is, it appears to be in A1 mint condition which is probably unheard of anywhere in the world.

The Victor VI is a stunning machine anyway. My next machine, hopefully!

[beaumonde]

Thanks, guys. Yes, the brass horn on the Vic VI is original (there is patina to the eye), although I've been told it may have been relacquered at some point (there is no decal). The phonograph was formerly in the Dave Heitz collection.

[phonophan79]

The Mills Novelty Company of Chicago made an all-electric violin/piano called the Violano-Virtuoso. They use a 44-note piano and were made in single- and double-violin models, as well as string quartets with viola and cello added, and even optional percussion units.

Never seen these before, amazing mechanical music! Thanks for sharing.

[Valecnik]

Thanks, guys. Yes, the brass horn on the Vic VI is original (there is patina to the eye), although I've been told it may have been relacquered at some point (there is no decal). The phonograph was formerly in the Dave Heitz collection.

Beautiful machine. I have the same horn but mine is not as nice. Perhaps someone will correct me but I don't believe the brass ones ever had a decal. I've seen several in various condition but never seen even remnants of a decal.

[JohnM]

I've never seen a 24-B with a decal either, but never say never in this hobby! To my knowledge, the 24-B has never been reproduced, but the 19" brass horn has.