Featured Phonograph No. 83 - Amberola 1A Serial no. 403

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Valecnik
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Re: Featured Phonograph No. 83 - Amberola 1A Serial no. 403

Post by Valecnik »

a few more pics...
Attachments
IMG_6105.JPG
IMG_6104.JPG
IMG_6096.JPG
IMG_6091.JPG
IMG_6088.JPG
better picture of the wheel of lid lowering mechanism
better picture of the wheel of lid lowering mechanism

rodpickett
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Re: Featured Phonograph No. 83 - Amberola 1A Serial no. 403

Post by rodpickett »

A beautiful machine. Thanks for posting the photos.

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Andersun
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Re: Featured Phonograph No. 83 - Amberola 1A Serial no. 403

Post by Andersun »

Valecnik,

Will the right lid support work without the left one?

Steve

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Valecnik
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Re: Featured Phonograph No. 83 - Amberola 1A Serial no. 403

Post by Valecnik »

Andersun wrote:Valecnik,

Will the right lid support work without the left one?

Steve
No, it won't. The left one needs to be latched into place, (in the standard way). As soon as you trip the left one by pulling on the vertical spiraled rod, the weight of the lid slowly lowers the right one as the teeth of the right one pass over the wheel.

One more thing: In an earlier post I said, "The “button” on the vertical spiraled rod actually is threaded through the vertical spiraled rod and passes into (or through, I can’t recall) the horizontal bar."

That's not correct. Actually The “button” on the vertical spiraled rod actually is a nut, The end of the horizontal bar has a threaded screw that passes through the vertical spiraled rod. The button screws on to that. Hope that's understandable.

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Re: Featured Phonograph No. 83 - Amberola 1A Serial no. 403

Post by estott »

All of this technical sophistication went by the wayside once Edison realized that most of his cylinder buyers were old people on farms.

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Valecnik
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Re: Featured Phonograph No. 83 - Amberola 1A Serial no. 403

Post by Valecnik »

estott wrote:All of this technical sophistication went by the wayside once Edison realized that most of his cylinder buyers were old people on farms.
Yea it must have been quite a shock for some potential buyers in 1914, trying to decide between an Opera, 1B or a III, V, and suddenly the highest quality cylinder machine offered was the relatively drab Amberola 75.

Not as disappointing though as having purchased a 1B or Opera in 1912 only to find that two years later just dubbed cylinders were offered.

Lenoirstreetguy
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Re: Featured Phonograph No. 83 - Amberola 1A Serial no. 403

Post by Lenoirstreetguy »

I know what you mean! The quality of the dubbed cylinders would really be annoying because the inferior quality is far more obvious on a machine with a decent sized horn. Not to mention the classical catalogue began to fall into the " Concert Song" realm.
Gosh that's a nice machine, by the way.

Jim

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Paal1994
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Re: Featured Phonograph No. 83 - Amberola 1A Serial no. 403

Post by Paal1994 »

A very elegant phonograph!
Easily one of the best looking internal horn cylinder machines from Edison!

Paal.

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Valecnik
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Re: Featured Phonograph No. 83 - Amberola 1A Serial no. 403

Post by Valecnik »

Lenoirstreetguy wrote:I know what you mean! The quality of the dubbed cylinders would really be annoying because the inferior quality is far more obvious on a machine with a decent sized horn. Not to mention the classical catalogue began to fall into the " Concert Song" realm.
Gosh that's a nice machine, by the way.

Jim
Yes, and to make it worse, the number of selections offered on cylinder, as compared to the then new disc offering was much lower and continued to decline, especially the operatic numbers. There were many many 82xxx and 83xxx operatic discs that were never dubbed at all into the concert or royal purple series, and when they were, often only one side was dubbed.
Paal1994 wrote:A very elegant phonograph!

Easily one of the best looking internal horn cylinder machines from Edison!

Paal.
Thanks Paal, it's certainly one of my favorites too.

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Re: Featured Phonograph No. 83 - Amberola 1A Serial no. 403

Post by vansteem78 »

I have wondered why we just don't call it the A? Well your example is just spectacular looking and that lid lowering mechanism sounds like a very desirable thing. I am very happy with my 1A (A) though it is more common with the maroon color and normal type wood coloring and crank too. Thanks for showing us this and telling us about it. So much to learn so little time. ha ha Neil PS probably of no interest but my SN is 658.

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