"Great White Way" Blues. VV-370

[EarlH]

I really just wanted to thank Wyatt for rebuilding the soundbox on this VV-370. It really sounds great now and I have to admit that I've never really cared for how the #2 usually sounds and like the Exhibition sound box overall much better. But Wyatt really made this one sound very nice. We sure do have better materials to restore these reproducers now over what was available 35 years ago. I can remember cutting up fruit jar rings to get these things to work without rattling when I was in high school. I had no idea in those days that the gaskets were supposed to be really soft. All that aside, Wyatt did a fine job with this thing. It has great volume, no blasting or rattles and he was much faster about getting it back to me than I was expecting! If you are looking for someone to do this type of work for you, I would really have to recommend his service!
Anyway, here's a Brunswick record on this machine. I haven't had this thing for very long, so I haven't done anything with the motor yet other than a little bit of oil, so you might hear it rumbling around a little bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bambZU ... e=youtu.be

[OrthoSean]

That sounds fantastic!

And +1 for Wyatt.

Sean

[RolandVV-360]

What a beautiful and rare machine! I have one of its rarer sister models, the VV-360. I haven't had my No. 2 rebuilt yet, but it still sounds superb on the large-horned VV-360. I can guess they have almost identical performance, so with a rebuild reproducer, I imagine that she sounds out of this world!

[oldphonographsteve]

What a fantastic blues tune on such a rare Victrola! Thanks for sharing.

-Stephen

[EarlH]

Well thanks, it's a nice looking machine and I've always liked the looks of both versions of this one. It was kind of a fluke that I ran across both styles within a couple of weeks of each other. They both need to be refinished, even though this one looks pretty good in the photographs. The console one I have needs it much worse though as it was kept in a basement for a long time. I'll do that one first. This one is pretty nice, but the top of the lid has some issues, and the left side of this one has some of the molding dented up pretty badly from getting laid on that side a long time ago while getting moved I would guess. Or it may have been near a door that opened into it. I can steam all those dents out, but it won't do the finish on that side much good. These later machines have a pretty easy finish to do on them, and it will look pretty good then for the next 90 years with a reasonable amount of care.

And to get your reproducer gone through on your 360. I think it helps to put some grease on the base of the tone arm on these to make it a little more airtight. I haven't done that on this one yet, but it does seem to help with these. They aren't orthophonic machines of course, but they do sound pretty good with the records that were made for them. And even if you don't send your reproducer to Wyatt, you can make it sound much better yourself by replacing those hard gaskets if you haven't already done so. I'm sure they both have the same horns in them. I think the horn is the same in the VV-410 as well. I'll have to measure them as see. The upright machines will sound better though since the horn is up higher.

[VintageTechnologies]

Is that the Original Memphis Five? I think I have that same song and group on Edison. It is a shame they did not record more than a few titles for Edison.

[EarlH]

The record is by "The Cotton Pickers" I guess I should have included that on the youtube video. I'm terrible about label information on records...

[VintageTechnologies]

I read up on The Cotton Pickers on the Red Hot Jazz website. There were a number of musicians that played in both groups, especially early on. No wonder than your recording sounds similar to the Edison recording.