The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

https://www.ebay.com/itm/EARLY-EDISON-S ... %7Ciid%3A1

What do you think? I bought a best up GEM and had someone I know completely restore it. It is now flawless. Thoughts on this one?

Now that’s an early Standard from 1898! I say go for it!!

That is an exceeding early phonograph that does not come up very often. It is well worth the restoration project. One thing is that getting parts for it will be expensive. The single screw reproducer clips are available but cost some bucks. Once it is restored it will be worth a lot if done correctly. I have an early one but not that low . If you buy it keep in contact with the seller as he is a good source for parts and may deal with you off line . I have brought a lot from him as he gets a lot of older phonograph part machines in and is very helpful in giving you the correct period parts. If you want to restore an older phonograph that is ideal as most of it is there but will take a lot of cleaning and painting. It does not have a gear cover. It take a standard reproducer but you could get by with an automatic. It is a project you will be proud of when finished. Tom

Please harvest the photos from the eBay listing and post them to this thread — when the eBay listing expires the images will be lost. That should be standard practice for any eBay/Craigslist/etc. timed listing mentioned in a TMF post.

tomb wrote:It does not have a gear cover.

I'm pretty sure that the earliest Standards, including this one, were shipped without gear covers. I don't see any holes in the bedplate, adjacent to the left mandrel shaft stanchion, where the retaining screws would have been threaded.

-- Grant

The carriage also has the very early 2-screw reproducer clip arrangement.

Pics for posterity:

Yes, the very early Standards were shipping from the factory without the gear cover and the decks were not drilled for the gear cover. But there were mechanical issues with early Standards and many were returned to the factory for repair. I believe that gear covers as well as repairs were done to these machines before they were returned to owners.

Jerry Blais

No crank and no lid would be the biggest negatives to me. The first won't be cheap, and the second won't be easy to find, (and probably not cheap either). But yes, it is a worthy project.

It’s a tough call for me. I don’t want to pay full price and offered 300$. I don’t mind spending a chunk in restoration, particularly because I love the idea of bringing something interesting back to life. However, he won’t budge on price. If it was not missing so many parts I’d be in. Probably will find a complete functioning one instead.

$375 is a lot of money. Then again, it is one of the oldest Edison Standards.