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It would certainly be nice to see some more detailed pics of #229834. It is certainly the Highest Manufactured Amberola 30 Serial number that I have ever seen... I would love to see how high that we can find out there... If you know of a higher Serial number, Please post it here.

About the Lid on the Original OP's Amberola 30 224685, I see nothing special about it at all. It's a typical Amberola 3rd Series lid. I've worked on many 3rd Series Amberola 30's with the same identical lid. His Mandrel though is another story however, I have never seen a fully nickeled mandrel like that ever...anywhere. Also, As mentioned earlier (and also in Frow's books), Edison cheapened out Amberola 30 Cabinet construction between the 2nd and 3rd Series by going from 5 Ply Veneer cabinets to 3-Ply veneer cabinets where the veneer was so cheaply applied on some machine cabinets that the veneer literally "just came off by itself"... That is why many 3rd Series cabinets do not survive. There are also tons of current surviving Amberola 30's out there where they have 3rd Series Bedplate and Motors and are inside 1st and 2nd Series Amberola 30 Cabinets...because a lot of the 3rd Series Cabinets didn't survive, but the Earlier Cabinets did.


Tony K.

Edison Collector/Restorer

Pics of 229834 for your viewing pleasure.

I think the OP's machine is really neat--I never saw that lid before. Mine is what I thought a third-model lid looked like.

Unfortunately #226448 has met its end recently, thanks to a parts seller. Thanks a million eBay...

Thanks for all of the great input and comments so far! It would be great to see whether anyone here has a totally complete (and unmolested since released by the Edison factory) Amberola 30 like mine with a higher serial number.

Since there seems to be a sizeable gap between the serial number on mine and those posted by Charles (VanEpsFan1914) I'm wondering what happened to all of those Amberola 30's in between that seem to be missing in action?

Is it possible that most of the apparent 5000 or more Amberola 30's made after mine were destroyed or otherwise tossed out?

Is it possible that the Edison factory produced ONLY the mechanical parts (motors and upper works) and issued ID plates with serial numbers for them and sold them that way? Seems very doubtful.

Is it possible that the Edison Company blocked out a bunch of serial numbers thinking there would be another use for those serial numbers?

It's a mystery to me what happened here. But surely there seems to be precious few completely intact, factory released and surviving Amberola 30's in the very late, very plain cabinet. At least that's my perspective.

It seems odd (if not illogical) that there may have been 5000 or more Amberola 30's produced after mine and few (none as far as we know here on the Forum thusfar) of those have survived in complete original cabinets and lids? What happened to them?

Doug

Dough you question what happened to the other 5000 machines. There are a total of 2581 members registered on this forum. Of that number we don’t know how many are active currently. The missing machines that have survived could be in the possession of collectors around the world. To draw conclusions that no others exist based on the replies received here would be a mistake. I believe it’s very difficult to determine if a machine like yours has a factory produced cabinet or something modified by someone very talented over the last ninety some years. The machine makes for an interesting discussion and maybe in time you will be able to draw a more informed conclusion.

Rich Gordon

rgordon939 wrote:The missing machines that have survived could be in the possession of collectors around the world. To draw conclusions that no others exist based on the replies received here would be a mistake.

Rich, Thanks for your comments. I completely agree that some completely original and intact examples of the missing Amberola 30's between my serial number and those kindly contributed by Charles are surely out there somewhere.

I mentioned:

FellowCollector wrote: It would be great to see whether anyone here has a totally complete (and unmolested since released by the Edison factory) Amberola 30 like mine with a higher serial number.

and:

FellowCollector wrote:Is it possible that most of the apparent 5000 or more Amberola 30's made after mine were destroyed or otherwise tossed out?

Is it possible that the Edison factory produced ONLY the mechanical parts (motors and upper works) and issued ID plates with serial numbers for them and sold them that way? Seems very doubtful.

Is it possible that the Edison Company blocked out a bunch of serial numbers thinking there would be another use for those serial numbers?

I'm trying to figure out what happened (and how many are still out there) of those missing machines in that span that are complete and intact after mine given the fairly sizeable serial number span between mine and those provided by Charles.

I would be thrilled to see any other complete and original examples that have a higher serial number. I've not seen or heard of any thusfar.

I realize that we have a limited audience of phonograph collectors here on the Forum but, as with respected members of this Forum have tried to do in the past by compiling what is contributed by Forum members, it's the best I can do to try to obtain some sort of conclusion as to the missing machines. I happily invite what I realize is a limited audience here to contribute theirs if they have one.


Thanks again for your comments!

Doug

There must be a lot of variation in the Amberola production. We have one that has a brass mandrel and the black id label located inside on the right wall of the horn opening. Another one has the label on top of the bedplate behind the mandrel. The first one has a grey colored reproducer, the other one is black painted.

startgroove wrote:There must be a lot of variation in the Amberola production. We have one that has a brass mandrel and the black id label located inside on the right wall of the horn opening. Another one has the label on top of the bedplate behind the mandrel. The first one has a grey colored reproducer, the other one is black painted.

The Amberola 30 was released in a number of cabinet/lid/ID plate variations. Some of these differences are very interesting and are discussed in prior Forum posts including this one: http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... =2&t=28558 Anyway, I believe the earliest version had the ID plate inside on the right side panel (almost hidden from sight!) just as you mentioned. The second version had the ID plate tacked to the rear of the bed plate. And the 3rd version had the ID plate inside the lid. I've seen a bullet shaped mandrel on some Amberola 30's. I can recall when I first started collecting phonographs long ago, I purchased (what I found out later was) an early Amberola 30 and I thought it was odd that it had no ID plate. It was literally a year later that I looked inside to the right of the horn and there it was! The reproducers were nickel plated first and then black (the most commonly found) later. If I've stated anything in error here please feel free to correct me. Thanks!

Doug

Doug,I think the Amberola 30 pictured looks like mine.I think mine is a nickel mandrel.I'd also have to look at the serial number.edisonplayerPS;The serial number on my 30 is SM-154978.

"I think the OP's machine is really neat--I never saw that lid before. Mine is what I thought a third-model lid looked like."

They look like the same exact lid to me... How is his lid any different than yours that is pictured... Am I missing something here?!??

Tony K.

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Edison Collector/Restorer