Columbia, index/list of USA/UK/DE/Japan made portables

[nostalgia]

That is a good question, Barry. I hope it is not made by the owners to easier lift out the motorboard

When we are talking about green Columbias, I can show the green Columbia 9000 that I was fortunately able to buy today, in contrary to the green 112 that does not belong to me. I did not sleep much the last couple of nights, knowing I was not the only one bidding on the gramophone, and the seller agreed to allow my latest bid to stand until 10 am this morning, after I had to raise the bid at 7 am this morning ! Luckily no one else made a bid before 10 am, so this afternoon I drove a total of 400 km to get this green Columbia 9000.

I know I am not the only one who have this green Columbia 9000, but after searching past threads, I could not find any photos of this beautiful machine on the forum, so I thought it could be in many forum members interest to have a look at this unique machine. Instead of myself immediately telling here and now the differences between this machine, and the HMV 102, I leave that to the public to decipher.

I am very happy I was able to get hold of this machine, it has for some months been on my wishing list, and this is the first time during the last year ( when I reignited and really put on fire my interest in acoustic gramophones) one has been up for sale in my area.

I have not had time to open the motorboard.
..and the turntable cover is plush..and not felt.


Enjoy !

[Phono48]

Congratulations! These are beautiful machines, and luckily I too have the green one. The only slightly annoying thing about it is that the lid of the needle bowl hits the deck screw, and has to be lifted to clear it, which could in time break the rivet that hols the needle bowl lid on. Same problem with the identical blue version. Is yours the same?

Barry

[nostalgia]

Thank you, Barry !
Yes, they are beutiful machines, and the casing is also very solid. The machine is now in my rented garage room, so I will check up on the lid of the needle bowl later today, if it also has to be lifted over the motorboard screw on my machine.

To reveal some differences from the HMV 102, the obvious differences are:
The needle bowl
The lid stay
The flush mounted motor board
The positioning of the winding key inside the lid
Plush/velvet covered Garrard turntable, that is chromed at the edge
The Columbia 28A version of the HMV 5B soundbox

The production of Columbia 9000 started in 1946, and ended in 1957, according to the HMG book (Oakley/Proudfoot). Based heavily on the HMV 102, it is however a far more scarce machine, and as told in the first post, it is the first machine I have witnessed for sale in my area since June 2019.

If someone feel like adding more info on the Columbia 9000, it is of course welcome...

When I collected this Columbia, I at the same time, 2 km from the residence of the Columbia, picked up a copy of its "older brother", a blue HMV 102. It is in fact sad photos, and I am absolutely not adding the photos to show that the HMV 102 is an inferior version of the Columbia 9000. I still add them, to show how 2 great machines, in the same small village, have had 2 parallell but very different life spans, and as we know are still very much connected. The blue HMV 102, had according to the owner been used much on seaside trips, and spent hours on both sandy beaches and big rocks along the shoreline. It has entertained A LOT, during its lifespan, while the green Columbia 9000, most certainly have not been used a lot.

It is still interesting, to see a machine that has endured both wind, salty water, and the forces of both man and nature, and still survived. It was only hours from ending on the landfill, when I 5 weeks ago bid 25 euro for it. No one had responded to the ad showing the machine, before I took pity on it. It was of course not a difficult decision, when we see the record tray and soundbox. It is not an easy decision to use a blue HMV 102 as a donor machine though, but in this instance, it will need to be exactly that. I will not recover it, since this is not really something that I am attracted to, and also something that I know I would not be good at doing. Still, the machine will live on, or at least the parts of it will live on, instead of ending on the landfill.

[nostalgia]

Barry, it has the same problem with the needle bowl!

Question about the casing of the HMV 102: I always thought it was all wood, but today, out of pure curiosity I removed the rexine from lid of this blue HMV 102. The frame is wood, but the top cover appears very much as cardboard to me?

I will not say that I after all consider recovering this blue HMV 102, but when the possibility was there, I wanted to see the real deal behind the rexine. It was by the way extremely difficult to tear off by hand.

[Phono48]

It is indeed very like cardboard, and was officially known as "Essex board".

Barry

[Inigo]

An example found near me of a leather covered Columbia 111 with straight tonearm and Columbia no9 soundbox, with golden hardware. Seems to have been made specially for a Buenos Aires dealer...

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[epigramophone]

The "Brown Cowhide" Columbia 111 and it's successor the 111a was available in two versions, the 111-N with nickel plated fittings and the 111-GP with gold plated fittings. The 1929 prices for the 111a were £7.10s for the N and £9.9s for the GP.

The 111 pictured is the GP version and the soundbox is the No.8, not the No.9 which was fitted to the 111a. It is a standard product, despite what the supplying dealer claimed, but why would he have imported machines into Argentina from the UK Columbia factory rather than the much nearer American one?

[nostalgia]

The saga continues...
Two days ago I saw a black Columbia 202 for sale in my area. Normally it would not have attracted my interest, since I already have a black Columbia 202, that I bought early this spring, but then the motor board got my attention. I had not see this motor board on a Columbia 202, so then it, again, became impossible to let it go. I put a bid on it, and the bid was accepted, and I drove out this afternoon to bring it back home. The record storage is missing, but that is rather easy to find on these machines, so it was not a turn off. The spring may be broken, since the winding key moves freely without resistance, so finally I will probably see myself servicing my first Columbia, with a Garrard motor the next week or so. A leap forward in servicing, that now had to happen anyway, since at least 3-4 Columbia machines with Garrard motors are crying for help here now.

I upload photos of both my earlier bought black 202 for comparison, hopefully the differences shown on the motor board between the two models can ignite some of the Columbia experts to tell their views on the approximate year of manufacture for the two different Columbia with Garrard motors, or at least suggest what model is the earliest one of the two. I am simply not there yet myself, since I at the time of writing this not yet have serviced a Garrard motor.

So here we go then, welcome the Columbia 202 with the polished wood motor board to the forum! Maybe some of you have seen it before, but at least for me, this is a new color variation for these motor boards. I wanted anyway to show it and upload photos of it, for reference and the always important aspect of shared knowledge.

Noticed differences on the two machines ( by myself), apart from the obvious motor board wood color:
The winding key enclosure is left and right on the two different machines
Thr edge of the turntable is also different on the two turntables, with a flat edge close to the plush on the light wood colored machine
Different speed controls
Tone arm supports are slightly different
Different spindles and turntable locks

PS. The top lid is missing on the domed needle container on the black colored motor board model

Update: September 15th 2020. Photo added of a third Columbia 202 version, with rexin covered motor board, and winding key on the right side.

[epigramophone]

I have never seen a 202 with a polished wood motor board either. It could possibly be a carry over from the 112a which did have a polished wood motor board on black versions, although much darker.The machine is pre-EMI, i.e.pre-1931. It has a Garrard No.50 motor, probably stamped Columbia, and a Columbia/Garrard manual brake.

The all black machine is post-EMI, with an HMV motor (probably an unmarked modified No.69) mated to the Columbia/Garrard speed control. The manual brake is an HMV twisted to resemble a Columbia/Garrard brake. One wonders why EMI bothered to do this. The needle bowl lid appears to be missing, and both machines are missing their record storage albums which fit inside the lid.

The earlier machine has a Columbia carrying handle. The later one has an HMV "Pakawa" spring loaded carrying handle.

Now that you have joined the CLPGS you will be able to read my article on the last Plano-Reflex Columbias, which should appear in the next magazine due out in mid September.

[Gramophile]

Here is some information from the pages of my Columbia (US) record catalogues about their portables model 160 (1928), and 120 & 161 (1929). $ 50 seems quite pricey for a portable; but then Columbias were quality products, as we agree.