The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

well, it is finally done!

i replaced the main spring with the new one i bought from notenboom in the netherlands and the varying speed issue has been fixed. UNFORTUNATELY the diaphragm that ken priestley sent to me had a hole in it and i sent it back and he gave me a refund. he doesn't have anymore in stock and i'm stuck with the original holed one that i have. i patched it up the best that i could but i don't know if the distortion is caused by airleaks or not.

anyway i made a recording and uploaded it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYKFXZvfhTw

i want to thank everyone on this forum who has helped me out, cheers!

The distortion could be caused by the hole in the diaphragm, but also by wear on your record. Also, those acoustic gramophones are less than ideal for playing those late 1950's rock&roll records. The volume is way too loud. Do you also hear distortion when you play, for instance, 1930's or 40's records?

too loud? this particular record seemed to be pretty normal to me, i recorded it by placing my computer mic inside the horn opening, maybe that's why it seems very loud? i have another record that is way louder than this and i figured it wasn't meant to be played on this.

anyway i don't know if my records are from the 30's or 40's, how do you tell? (sorry i'm still new to this) i have a few instrumental pieces that only distort at the peaks, i suspect it is due to the tear in the diaphragm...

Yes, it is way too loud! And that record will soon be shredded too! Ideally records of this period should only be played with light-weight electrical cartridges and not steel needles. Or in some cases, not at all: Elvis Presley on SUN!

There are several ways. For instance catalogue numbers, label design, name of the artist, the tune (when it was a hit, if it ever was), the musical style, etc.

HMV's model 102 is quite probably the record holder of all wind-up gramophones with regard to production time. They were made from 1931 to 1960! They are at their best playing a pre-1945 record. If you do want to play a later record, use a soft-tone needle. They still are made, but you might have to google a bit to find a trustworthy supplier.
Post 1945 records on average are far to loud for an acoustic machine and wear down to nothing within ten playings with a 'normal' steel needle. I made that mistake with a 1956 record of Frank Sinatra and could literally see the needle cutting up the groove when I just started collecting 78s. And do change the needle after every single side you play. A worn needle will seriously damage your record, even within one play.

Peter.

oh no what have i done!! i bought that bill haley record from a shop here in singapore for quite a sum...so that means i can't play it anymore for now :/

i have been searching online for a database and i found some: http://settlet.fateback.com/ being one of them, but for some reason none of my records show up in any database.

for example i have a record from Columbia Masterworks, Carmen suite, it has the numbers MX 144-4, 70630-D and CAX 8554 on the label but none of these numbers appear in the database, how does one find out whether what date this record was pressed?

bummer this hobby is ten times more complex than i first thought...

well it has been a few months since i restored this thing and i did my first instructional on this. it's really basic and i know nowhere near as much as the other guys here (i might even be doing something wrongly!) but it's just a simple guide to disassemble your HMV 102.

for newbies like me everywhere who might need it and stumble on this post someday:

http://projectrepair.blogspot.com/2011/05/project-his-masters-voice-gramophone.html