fran604g wrote:...
I don't have any proof that
any Edisonics left the factory with L-P capabilities, but let me explain my thoughts:
The dataplate for the Beethoven is designated as "BN", which is a pretty understandable abbreviation, but the Schubert is not a straightforward abbreviation at all. It's "CLT", which in my opinion was an abbreviation for "Consolette", as I've opined in the past. We know that George Frow stated the Consolette was a Long Playing machine that went into very limited production, but apparently none (that we have identified) has survived. I know it's pure conjecture on my part, but I can't help to think that what we know as the Schubert was initially produced with L-P gearing as the Consolette, which means it would've had the L-P function installed at the factory. This possibility, coupled with our knowledge that "Edison" never let anything go to waste, has me questioning why - with the transition from Long Playing Consoles into the Edisonics - would such an out of character change happen, which didn't use up at least
some old L-P parts?
It doesn't make sense to me that that would happen. But I probably wouldn't make much sense to the
Old Man, either.
I hope someday the mystery will be solved conclusively, and that I live long enough to read of the discovery either way round.
Cheers,
Fran
Interesting idea, but I see one fly in the proverbial hat: the Schuberts were single-spring machines. If the company was going to put LP gearing into an Edisonic, presumably it would have chosen one with a two-spring motor, as a single-spring motor wouldn't have enough run time to play at least the 12" LP discs, maybe not the 10" either. That would make the Beethoven, not the Schubert, the logical candidate.
Very little apparently is known about the "Consolette," including the design of its cabinet. I can think of two other possibilities, both pure speculation:
1) The Schubert's cabinet was originally intended to be that of the LP Consolette, and a quantity with "CLT" data plates affixed were already in hand awaiting completion when the LP records proved a commercial dud. In the spirit of never letting good parts go to waste, Edison repurposed them by putting in the standard play single-spring works we all know and love, possibly, again on the "waste not, want not" principle, left-overs from the London series. Having started with "CLT" plates, the company soldiered on with that designation, after all purely for internal consumption, to the end of the line. This option is akin to what you laid out above but without the incorporation of LP gearing into the Schuberts.
2) The company already had a big stock of plates stamped "CLT" on hand when it scrubbed the Consolette and simply repurposed them as Schubert plates, transferring "CLT" to the Schubert line, to be affixed to an entirely new cabinet design housing the aforementioned standard play single-spring works we all know and love.
I wish we knew more about that LP Consolette. Has anyone actually ever seen one?