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Pathéphone backmount tonearm variants

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2018 6:21 pm
by PeterF
Do any of you happen to know when the lovely double-jointed backmount tonearm, as illustrated in the 1906 catalog cut attached here, changed to the simpler, L-shaped one that is commonly seen?

Re: Pathéphone backmount tonearm variants

Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2018 2:34 am
by CarlosV
From the evidence of later catalogues, these arms were discontinued between 1906 and 1912. They were fitted on the models D and E (and maybe others), although my model D has a different one (not the later S-shaped back). The Pathephones that succeeded this first generation of disc machines (and which were numbered, not lettered) had all such S-shaped back. Something to note is that the double-jointed arm fits only the first model of soundbox, with the red rubber back acting as connector between soundbox and arm. This soundbox is quite difficult to find nowadays, and when I found one its rubber back has hard as a rock. The more common soundboxes like the Concert require a slot in the arm to fit a screw, and therefore is not really compatible with the earlier arm, even though you can manage to fit it at the rim of the arm.