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Anyway, I wound up paying $25 for it. It sure didn't look like much when I first bought it (sorry, no auction pics) and, after spending the past few days rebuilding it, polishing, and shining it up......it still doesn't. Looks MUCH better, but 50 years of sitting in a shed did it's damage.Believe it or not, the daughter of the original owner was there. (88 years old!) She approached me as I was looking it over, and we struck up a conversation as we were all waiting for the auctioneers to get near the "furniture tent." Her father bought it new in (she thinks) the early 20's, she said. They used it up until the late 30's on a regular basis, then they bought a AM/Phonograph unit. It was moved to her and her late husbands house in the early 40's and was kept in the bedroom. She said it stopped working in the mid 50's, (both springs are in pieces) and her husband moved it out to one of the outbuildings in the late 50's...she thinks 1959, because she mentioned something about Castro happening shortly after they did this (I'm thinking when he took over in Cuba?) and it sat in the shed until 2010, when they brought it here to sell. She was thrilled it brought even $25
Now, I have to give whoever disassembled this thing credit. When I saw it, there was no horn, only a pile of wood, and fragments laying in between the record storage shelves. They , did however, leave all the wood pieces there, and were even as nice as to put all the nails in a paper bag and staple it closed. The tone arm appears to have been snapped off it's bracket, and was laying on the turntable at the auction.
So, after removing all the wood fragments, I realized that was the horn! So, after piecing it back together, and remounting everything (I literally had to completely disassemble it to get the horn back in the machine.)
This certainly was a cheap machine. All parts are nickel plated, lack of design, and the horn is made up of 3 thin wood pieces held together by penny nails, nailed on a board/shelf.
The finish is bad. I mean, yes, it's "original" and I believe in keeping these as original as possible, within reason, but this finish is awful. Sitting in the shed so long has alligatored and dulled it so badly, there's no point in keeping it around. A refinish is in order. I'm guessing it's Mahogany.
The tone arm, is snapped off the mounting bracket (it seems.) If not, I have no idea how it's supposed to stay in place. Turntable felt isn't too bad. All of the nickel parts (esp. the handle, platter, and speed control) are very worn.)
But, this is what I have:
I like it, but I don't know what it'll take to fix the tone arm. I may have to find one off eBay that will work (mounting bracket and such) and go that route. The motor needs a rebuild. Both springs are shot (I can probably do that myself, never done it before)