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I'm posting this here so that someone else will buy it so I can't! I need an Orthophonic for delicious VEs. Not a XVII. And anyway, the ad shows only a (nice) tone arm and reproducer, but no motorboard or turntable. The ad does, however, helpfully note that the "guts" are "available". Seems like I've already been down that road this week. Beautiful thing, though. Thought for a split second it was an XVIII, all that nice grain.

Feel like the records probably reallywanna stay with the machine, but he seems to be asking as much for them as for the player itself.

Oh, and it's one-a-them "RCA" Victors, too -- this listing may in fact be made for John M's "Worst CL LIstings" thread, in its own terrible way...

http://boston.craigslist.org/nos/atd/4097632602.html

Hi Cody,

That's actually an XVI and it's Oak. Looks like it may be weathered Oak, which isn't common with these. It's a nice earlier XVI too. The price doesn't seem horrible and in one photo you can see the motor sitting in the background. It's certainly worth looking into if they don't want a fortune for the "guts". I'd at least take a look at it if it were closer to me!

Sean

Thanks for the correction, OrthoSean. The oak on this one seems to have an especially nice grain, and I can just see it put back together, cleaned up and buffed. There's just no way I can fit this into my agenda, unfortunately, so I'm trying hard not to want it.

If I had the transport I'd seriously think of this.

I haven't gone to see this machine, but I've talked with the man who is selling it. It sounds like everything is there except the motorboard, which might mean the brake, speed adjustment, etc. are missing too. He isn't really able to say what is or isn't there, because he doesn't know what should be. But it sounds as if the motor is complete. He told me he'd sell it without the records, but with the empty albums. I bought some other things this weekend, so I'll have to let this slide. The grain pattern looks especially nice, so if anyone's interested, feel free to PM me and I'll tell you what I know.

Cody

I think you need to change the thread title. As Sean has pointed out.....it is a Victrola XVI also known as a Victrola 16. A very common machine and one you can find in many CL listings. Given the part(s) missing....not worth messing with IMHO.

I'm a bit embarassed about misidentifying in the first post, and grateful to OrthoSean for correcting me. I don't think the thread title can be changed without moderator intervention, though, and since the thread's about over, it's probably not worth the trouble.

I understand that XVIs are fairly common, but this one stands out a bit because, as Sean points out, they're less common in weathered oak, which this does seem to be a nice specimen of. The seller has indicated that he'd drop the price somewhat and include the (empty) albums in it, because in talking with him I stressed that the books were original to the machine and should stay with it. (If the record he's holding in the pic is any indication, the records are probably too new for the machine anyway.) Because OrthoSean and estott had suggested that it might be worth looking into, I just thought I'd update the info in case anyone better able to get to it than I am might be interested, that's all.