Brunswick Panatrope with Radiola 138-C

[Springmotor70]

Earl,
I did not see that but you are correct. That is another De-Luxe case - I don't know the exact name until I look at my paperwork. It has the same set up. When the De-Luxe cases were adapted for a panatrope (P-3) that lower 10" album compartment was closed for the amp.

Your refinishing work looks great. You have that 1920s spray highlights that was so popular in period revival furniture down pat! I know of a photo in a publication of the finishing department of the Temple Radio factory in 1929 where they are sparying pieces in booths. I'll have to post that here. There is a 148-C here in the St. Louis area (owned by another TMF member) that has the exterior finish very sun faded like your same cabinet was before the work. It could have been kept in a very sunny room but its interesting that it was so evenly faded which makes me think that besides being exposed to lots of UV that there was something about that finish that just made it prone to easy fading.

Darren

[EarlH]

Darren,
Well thanks for the kind words about my refinishing. It's not terribly hard to do but it does take a little practice to figure out what order to spray everything in. It's also a little bit like flying by the seat of your trousers as it doesn't always turn out quite like you might expect it to. But that's just how wood is anyway. I've refinished quite a bit of Victor stuff over the years as well, and I am of the opinion that Brunswick did better work than Victor did in the cabinet department. At least in the more expensive models. Victor probably did better work on the more ordinary machines than Brunswick did but that's another story I suppose.
They used to figure that Lacquer had about a 30-35 years life on furniture so most of this stuff has survived way past that date. But fading is a problem on those old finishes. The reds really fade badly and they really don't need much light to do that. Victor dipped most of the mahogany stuff in nearly boiling hot dye, so it's much more colorfast than the tints that were used in the spray lacquers. I think the modern dye's are a lot better in that regard. And even the parts that don't see much light often darken and oxidize so it makes the finish really murky and the grain hard to see. They really wanted that stuff to be a sort of eye candy in those days and at $1150-$1275 they kind of had to work the crowd a little bit. Ha!
Once I get the lid decals I'll be able to finish these up and finish putting them back together. I sure have been playing that 138-C a lot since I've gotten it far enough back together that it can be played. I still can't get over how good it sounds with a well recorded record. I don't think Brunswick actually used the Western Electric recording system when they were recording were they? At least not early on. The early Brunswick electric records really don't sound all that good but they seem to have gotten that sorted out after a year or so.
You'll have to pester that guy about selling you that Panatrope. Unless it's playing he will probably part with it. Of course you pretty much have the same thing with what you already have except for the Radiola 28. But that's kind of an interesting radio really and I suppose was a good set when it was new, but is kind of an oddball nowadays that's for sure.

[EarlH]

Did you see this one on Craigslist? It must be the machine that's in the ad that mentions the model 48-C. Maybe this is the very early version of that Panatrope with Radiola. It's too much money and WAY too far away for me to pay much attention to it, but I wish Brunswick's serial numbers made sense. I'll have to look at mine and see if they are higher or not. I asked for more pictures awhile back, but of course never got any answer. HA!

http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/atq/4699885438.html

[Ampico66]

I found mine locally here in St. Louis. Brunswick Panatrope Radiola (28) model 148c. Original finish in beautiful shape and had all of the original tubes that were all good. I had Mike Bran work on it for me to get it running. The phonograph compartment is on top.

[EarlH]

That's a nice looking 148-C you have. Mike worked on a C-2 Edison for a good friend of mine and it sure turned out nice. He's a nice guy and really does a nice job.
I have always had acoustic machines up until a couple of years ago and sure have been playing this poor Brunswick of mine a lot in the last couple of weeks. I doubt it's played this many records in it's whole life if the records I got with it were all they ever bought for the old girl. When I got my first Edison in 1972 it's hard to say if I would have dragged something like this home or not, even if it was working. Things were a lot different in those days, but I also didn't know anyone that would have worked on it. I had bad experiences with guys that did this sort of work back when I was a kid.
I did finally get that transformer in it to eliminate the ballast tube. It's not so much like an Amish electric fireplace now and it doesn't give the tubes quite so much of an electric jolt when the set is first turned on. I can run it now for 3-4 hours and it doesn't get anywhere nearly as warm in there now. They just had such a wide range of voltages out there in the 20's that the ballast tube made sense. Gosh those ballast tubes put off a lot of heat. It also pulls almost a whole amp less while it's running as well so the power company won't think I bought an electric clothes dryer!

[EarlH]

Holy cow, I had no idea it took so long to put a video on youtube! I did get a couple up today of this Panatrope and maybe some of you will get a kick out of hearing one. My brother talked me into getting this video camera today and I've never run one before so I'll have to fool around with it and get it figured out a little better. But this does a pretty good job of showing off what the old girl sounds like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-j3uNdVjms You'll have to copy and paste the link into your browser. If that doesn't work, you can search it this way on youtube, I'm Yours on 1927 Brunswick Panatrope 138C It really is a very pleasant sounding old phonograph and has much more volume than one might expect with that little 6" speaker.

[Tpapp54321]

WOW, that sounds amazing!!! And you even have a video of it with a edison needle type I'm so jelous, I have a victor re-45 but it has some bad resistors and I'm really more of a fan of these Panatropes. Keep posting videos
-Tom

[EarlH]

Well thanks Tom. I've really had a lot of fun playing through records on it. I have been posting most of these records as I find them going through the stacks. I have found that the Victor & Columbia records do sound better on it than the early Brunswick electric records do. I think Brunswick had trouble "balancing" the early light-ray recordings, or whatever they called that system. And since it really is a Western Electric amplifier, it kind of makes sense it would like records recorded with that system. Brunswick must have changed that light ray thing after a year or two, or they figured out how to make better use of it because the later recordings sound much better. Some of those early Brunswick electric records will really sound bad on this thing. and some of the vocals on Brunswick will come at you like an ice pick!
That poor Edison needle record really had a big chunk out of it. I had about 20 of them but sold most of them a long time ago. Those things are pretty brittle for some reason. I'll have to get the other side uploaded on that record as they are both pretty good.
Those RE-45's are really nice machines as well. I've heard those and they have a pair of 45 tubes to drive the speaker. This has a 210 tube in it, but it's a little earlier and the 45 tubes didn't come out for another year or so. They got a little smarter with this stuff as time went on of course and your RE-45 has a tone screw on the back which is nice. This Brunswick is pretty much like a Credenza in that you get whatever the record has to offer. And the volume control on these has ten steps on it and sometimes the difference between 2 and 3 is quite a jump and will about run you out of the house! I'll post of video of the back side of it and around it as well. I just got this camera Saturday and never used one before. I'll also have to post the record information as well. Gosh it takes a long time to upload videos on youtube. I had no idea.

[Springmotor70]

Earl - It takes me about 20 minutes to load each video to Youtube.

Tom - I have a few Edison Needle Types on YouTube - they are all played on an Edison C4 - I also have videos of Bruswick recordings on a Panatrope P-11, etc. I have a little over 40 Needle types and will be posting more soon hopefully.

Earl, I find that the distortion of the light ray recordings is stronger in some recordings than others - some of the Orchestral recordings are quite nice - it might be that some engineers had a better handle on the set up.

I am also Springmotor70 on youtube.
Here is a great Needle Type recording of Jack Kaufman...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ5leHV ... FsIQ7CeDjA

[Tpapp54321]

WOW, I reaaaaaally need to get my re-45 up and running again
-Tom