Edison Diamond Phonograph

[Talkophone]

Looked at a Baby Console yesterday. Could someone tell me since it had the 10 & 12 buttons is it a long play or just a common Diamond Disk machine? They wanted $75 for the machine it worked good but the cabinet is rough. Should I have bought it? Just for the guts and reproducer and looked to put it in another machine?

Larry

[gramophoneshane]

A lot of the late production machines (especially consoles for some reason) have the 10/12 buttons, but were not fitted with LP gearing. Whether this was done to encourage people to add the LP mechanism I'm not sure, but a LP machine should have another lever to switch between SP & LP.
If the reproducer was slightly off-set & had "Long" printed on the front, then it's a pretty safe bet the machine was fitted with the extra gearing.
As for value, I'm not sure that the extra gearing adds "that much" more to a machine other than novelty value. The records are rare & expensive, and the system is fairly unpopular with collectors I believe, mainly because the records can be damaged so easily while playing.

[JohnM]

An LP machine -- whether factory or dealer-modified -- will have an additional switch on the right side of the bedplate for 'Long/Short'. Additionally, a factory LP machine has triple springs, whereas a modified C-250 or equivalent has two. A BC only has a single spring and couldn't possibly keep up with the demands of a LP record.

[Talkophone]

Thank You for the information. I know I could count on some one to help out. One thing about this forum is there are some very knowledgeable people when it comes to Edison Diamond Disk Machines.

Larry

[larryh]

The consoles has the 12 - 10 selection in my mind due to the fact that they are often hard to tell where the needle is at the angle that the operator has to the reproducer due to the depth of the turntable in the cabinet. On a C 19 your looking right at the needle in relationship to the grooves but not on a console. I have it now on my William and Mary and with a bit of adjusting I got it to sit down correctly so that after a few seconds the music begins. I have noticed that a couple times some records have a slightly quicker start to the groove which makes the adjustment off at times.

Your console is surely worth the money in the cost of a reproducer alone if you watch what many bring on ebay. I tired saving a london console that had lots of cabinet issues but the machine even after the work wasn't worth it. If the mechanical parts aren't really good I would wait for a machine that has a easy to save cabinet.