Amberola 30 in UK - Restoration

[Dicky Blighter]

Hello All - first post here from me here in the UK.

I restore/conserve mainly furniture and mechanical music stuff from late 1800's to 1970's and been commissioned to renovate an Amberola 30.
It's been stored in a garage for many years and is very dirty and mechanism is somewhat corroded and case was almost completely black with soot and dirt, so much so I had to wipe it clean with damp rags before I could even handle it.
There are 75 cylinders with it and although it looks a mess it's actually complete and case has intact veneer and no visible damage anywhere.

I believe its an early Series 1 as it has nickel reproducer, external speed control, 2 screw stay and the horseshoe governor arm referred to elsewhere on this forum.
There don't appear to be any on the market in the UK at present and as we in the UK had been engaged since 1914 in a bit of a dispute on mainland Europe and were in 1915 when it was made until 1918 I'm rather intrigued as to how it got here, a Is believe it's been in the same family for many years.

The picture shows as received (with most of the greasy black dirt removed) - I've now completely dismantled it, cleaned and rebuilt the mechanical bits and just about finished restoring the case. I've had it running to adjust the speed and it sounds like it will play fine when it's all re-fitted into the case.

Heres a link to the strip down pictures on Flikr - https://www.flickr.com/photos/dlevett/a ... 2563861437

I'll post more pictures of re-build in next couple of days.

[52089]

That is a quite early Amberola 30. The gold trim on the gear cover was discontinued quickly, probably before #5000.

What is the serial number on this one?

[Dicky Blighter]

It's 11297

[Jerry B.]

I've always thought that the 30/50/75 series were well designed and trouble free machines and they are great performing. It makes you wonder if the cylinder format would have held on a bit longer had they been introduced earlier instead of the Amberolas that featured Gem and Fireside leftovers. But even at the end of the cylinder era they sold well enough that they are fairly common in the States. Yours looks like a very worthy project.

I'm picking up an Amberola 30 in North Dakota on my way to Union. The seller says his wife wants it out of the house because it's haunted. Evidently it starts playing in the middle of the night! Is there anyone going to Union that is looking for a haunted Amberola 30?

Jerry Blais

[Lucius1958]

That is a quite early Amberola 30. The gold trim on the gear cover was discontinued quickly, probably before #5000.

What is the serial number on this one?

Also the pin striping on the bedplate, and the single carriage screw...

- Bill

[gsphonos]

I love the early Amberola 30's! I have only see a couple in person that have the pin stripping and the single screw reproducer carriage. I was lucky enough to get the Amberola 30 that belonged to Ron Dethlefson. He was very picky about the machines he kept in his collection--they had to be in VERY GOOD original condition. And, he had a knack at making all of his machines run as they did when new--the machine is so quiet (when it is just running with no cylinder playing) it is hard to tell that the machine is on! Good luck with your project. It looks like it will turn out very well!

Mike Sorter
Riverside, CA

[gsphonos]

What I forgot to mention is that my machine from Ron is also an early Amberola 30 that has the pinstriping on the gear cover and bedplate......

[epigramophone]

My first cylinder machine was an early Amberola 30 with nickel reproducer and external speed control.
It is unusual to find a surviving example without some degree of veneer damage, so this one is a rare exception.

[Jerry B.]

PM sent. Jerry B.

[Dicky Blighter]

Put it all back together today and gave it a try, here's fthe first run, left gear cover off for now in case it need tweaking a bit.

https://youtu.be/Nmy9OsWxj8w

Lighting is a bit dodgy making colours look odd:-