The Last Known Edison Amberola 30? Maybe...Maybe Not?
Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2019 10:17 am
99% of the time when I see an Edison Amberola 30 for sale I yawn and move on quickly. I'm sure many others here agree. They had a nice long production span and many have survived in varying condition.
This said, however, I was recently perusing estate auctions within a reasonable driving distance and when I saw the one (and only) picture of an Amberola 30 to be sold at the auction I said to myself, "Wait a minute...THAT is one of the extremely LATE Amberola 30's that I've been looking for all these years!". And it actually LOOKED in pretty decent condition.
So I bid on it and now, happily, own it. I've owned probably twenty Edison Amberola 30's over the years and have retained only five. Two of which are very early with the nice bed plate and gear cover pin striping and nickel plated reproducer. The others are later and commonly found.
But...the extremely late Edison Amberola 30 with the very plain cabinet with its rather homely plain bottom molding and very plain lid has eluded me for many years until this recent acquisition.
The serial number on this is very high indeed: 224685 surely making it one of the last Edison Amberola 30's manufactured and known. That's what I think anyway.
It's obvious that at the time (say, circa 1925) that this one was manufactured, Edison had drastically cheapened the cabinet and lid to reduce production cost. We can also presume that customer interest in purchasing ANY cylinder phonograph had to have been almost non-existent as well. To Edison's credit, though, his Company continued making cylinders for those who already owned a 4-minute Edison. But who would want to buy a cylinder phonograph at this time? Likely few.
Aside from the unusually plain cabinet, this one has at least one other very unusual component:
A COMPLETELY nickel plated mandrel! What the heck? I was stunned when I noticed it. All other Edison Amberola 30's that I've ever seen have the dull grey end piece at the large end of the mandrel that engages with the 4 mandrel gear leaf springs for mandrel rotation stability. Also, this one uses 3 VERY long screws that thread into 3 (el cheapo!) wooden triangular wedges inside the cabinet to secure the bed plate and motor assembly.
Amazingly, the original oak veneer is pretty nice on this. The late model Amberola 30's are almost always found with at least one or more chips of veneer missing on the lid and/or the front sides.
One odd design flaw this has is that the lid is difficult to lift!! The lid design was cheapened to remove the 'lip' that protrudes slightly on most other Amberola 30 lids so the user can get their finger and thumb under to lift the lid. Without the lid 'lip', the lid meets flush with the cabinet bottom and so the unfortunate user is required to push inward (awkwardly) with the thumb and fingers on the lid edge to lift it off the cabinet bottom! I can imagine a customer walking into an Edison phonograph dealer at this late time and I'd presume that ALL of the Edison Amberola 30's were OPEN already. Joe Customer looks and listens and (hopefully) buys. Then gets it home and tries to lift the lid to play it. Dohhh!
I've always been interested in very early production models as well as very late production models so this one, in spite of its clearly cheapened construction, will hold a respectable place in my collection.
Anyway, I wanted to share this with you folks and would be most grateful to hear from anyone else who has an extremely late Amberola 30 like this so we can compare notes! It plays great by the way.
Thanks,
Doug
This said, however, I was recently perusing estate auctions within a reasonable driving distance and when I saw the one (and only) picture of an Amberola 30 to be sold at the auction I said to myself, "Wait a minute...THAT is one of the extremely LATE Amberola 30's that I've been looking for all these years!". And it actually LOOKED in pretty decent condition.
So I bid on it and now, happily, own it. I've owned probably twenty Edison Amberola 30's over the years and have retained only five. Two of which are very early with the nice bed plate and gear cover pin striping and nickel plated reproducer. The others are later and commonly found.
But...the extremely late Edison Amberola 30 with the very plain cabinet with its rather homely plain bottom molding and very plain lid has eluded me for many years until this recent acquisition.
The serial number on this is very high indeed: 224685 surely making it one of the last Edison Amberola 30's manufactured and known. That's what I think anyway.
It's obvious that at the time (say, circa 1925) that this one was manufactured, Edison had drastically cheapened the cabinet and lid to reduce production cost. We can also presume that customer interest in purchasing ANY cylinder phonograph had to have been almost non-existent as well. To Edison's credit, though, his Company continued making cylinders for those who already owned a 4-minute Edison. But who would want to buy a cylinder phonograph at this time? Likely few.
Aside from the unusually plain cabinet, this one has at least one other very unusual component:
A COMPLETELY nickel plated mandrel! What the heck? I was stunned when I noticed it. All other Edison Amberola 30's that I've ever seen have the dull grey end piece at the large end of the mandrel that engages with the 4 mandrel gear leaf springs for mandrel rotation stability. Also, this one uses 3 VERY long screws that thread into 3 (el cheapo!) wooden triangular wedges inside the cabinet to secure the bed plate and motor assembly.
Amazingly, the original oak veneer is pretty nice on this. The late model Amberola 30's are almost always found with at least one or more chips of veneer missing on the lid and/or the front sides.
One odd design flaw this has is that the lid is difficult to lift!! The lid design was cheapened to remove the 'lip' that protrudes slightly on most other Amberola 30 lids so the user can get their finger and thumb under to lift the lid. Without the lid 'lip', the lid meets flush with the cabinet bottom and so the unfortunate user is required to push inward (awkwardly) with the thumb and fingers on the lid edge to lift it off the cabinet bottom! I can imagine a customer walking into an Edison phonograph dealer at this late time and I'd presume that ALL of the Edison Amberola 30's were OPEN already. Joe Customer looks and listens and (hopefully) buys. Then gets it home and tries to lift the lid to play it. Dohhh!
I've always been interested in very early production models as well as very late production models so this one, in spite of its clearly cheapened construction, will hold a respectable place in my collection.
Anyway, I wanted to share this with you folks and would be most grateful to hear from anyone else who has an extremely late Amberola 30 like this so we can compare notes! It plays great by the way.
Thanks,
Doug