The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I recently got this, and know nothing about Starr machines.

What is the model? Is it uncommon?

It sounded nice after I rebuilt the reproducer. Was the tonearm originally gold plated?. Any info you might have in this machine would be great!

I don't know much about Starr machines, but a Starr soundbox is an unusual thing to find on UK eBay. The price seems reasonable, but postage to the USA, if available, could be expensive.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-GRAM ... Sw3rFfgwFs

epigramophone wrote:I don't know much about Starr machines, but a Starr soundbox is an unusual thing to find on UK eBay. The price seems reasonable, but postage to the USA, if available, could be expensive.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-GRAM ... Sw3rFfgwFs

I don't need a new reproducer thankfully. I will probably need to order 2 new springs, and have new govenor bearings made. And after looking at that EBAY ad... that reproducer would not fit the machine anyways!

The case was refinished by someone previously... and it didn't age well. I will be refinishing case, which I do have a few questions about.

What is a good stain to get for a mahogany phonograph? And I would assume you don't use orange shellac for the finish coats?

It's a really neat phonograph, but I am probably going to let it sit for awhile before I work on it. School's starting tomorrow anyways, so I have other priorities


David

It was made by the Starr Piano Company in Richmond, IN. They are nice phonographs. I had an upright that had drawers for the records.

Their biggest contribution was their record company, Gennett Records. Gennett specialized in recording old-time country, jazz and blues musicians. If it weren't for Gennett, many of the old-time music in Kentucky would never have been recorded. Their records are highly sought after today. In some cases, only 100 copies of a record were pressed and copies of some of them have never been found.

Made by the Starr Piano company, it's a style(model) ½. I know it wasn't in their first lineup of machines, so it was introduced in 1917 and rebranded in 1922-1923 with a different tonearm before being pashed out completely in 1925. Since it has the swivel tonearm and standard reproducer I'd put it between 1917-1920.

I’ve got 2 Starr records. They didn’t come with this machine though

Very nice!

dzavracky wrote:I’ve got 2 Starr records. They didn’t come with this machine though

Jealous! I'd love to have early vertical Starr records one day.

dzavracky wrote:

epigramophone wrote:I don't know much about Starr machines, but a Starr soundbox is an unusual thing to find on UK eBay. The price seems reasonable, but postage to the USA, if available, could be expensive.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-GRAM ... Sw3rFfgwFs

I don't need a new reproducer thankfully. I will probably need to order 2 new springs, and have new govenor bearings made. And after looking at that EBAY ad... that reproducer would not fit the machine anyways!

The case was refinished by someone previously... and it didn't age well. I will be refinishing case, which I do have a few questions about.

What is a good stain to get for a mahogany phonograph? And I would assume you don't use orange shellac for the finish coats?

It's a really neat phonograph, but I am probably going to let it sit for awhile before I work on it. School's starting tomorrow anyways, so I have other priorities


David

David, wouldn't one of this vintage be a red mahogany stain? Should be fairly easy to find. And I do believe that there was no clear shellac circa 1915-1920 so you may be able to use a thinned orange shellac for finish coats. On the Victor-Victrola Page there was a wonderful guide to refinishing a Victrola and it covers mahogany in great detail as many Victors are in a mahogany finish.

Per the advertisement it looks like the grill is in upside down--It looks pretty nice either way.

Hopefully you can pick up a number of Gennett records of the old-time mountain music. Those would be wonderful to have; I wasn't aware that in some cases only a hundred copies were pressed. Fascinating.

This phonograph, with the Starr/Gennett connection, has a lot of artifact value to it. Good luck on the restoration!

I had forgotten I have this. I found it in an antique mall in Florida many years ago. I don't think I've seen another one.