Hi to everyone, I'm new to this site and indeed to the world of gramophones/phonographs. I have had an interest in 78s for half a year or so now and have quite an extensive collection but never anything appropriately 'period' to play them on. So when by chance I should see a green HMV 102 in good order just lying on the floor in my local junk shop for £30 I just had to buy it. I did some research and found out that it was one of the earliest examples of a green 102 and still had a 'universal braking system' if im right dating from the first year of production. Slowly I began to restore it, I managed to get the motor to work perfectly, the tone arm to slide perfectly, the chrome to shine and the case nice and clean. The final hurdle to cross was to tackle the 5A soundbox, which although produced very good sound I thought for something that old, suffered from distortion of the sound reproduction of piano pieces. I took the chrome protector plate off the front and polished it up, i took the box off and a rubber mount was left on the end of the tone arm in order to give the diagphram a gentle dust with a cotton ear bud and attempted to place it all back. Although the general sound quality has changed little, i think the volume has been reduced and the clarity with it.I feel quite downhearted that I have impaired the quality of something that had survivedso well. Is it worth looking at or should I accept that I made a very very stupid beginners mistake and attempt to purchase another?
Many thanks,
Tom
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