Blue Amberols - Good , Bad or Ugly?

[stevel]

With the Suitcase Standard I bought recently I also bought these Blue Amberols.
I know almost nothing about cylinders so wondered of you guys (and gals) could tell me if any of these are of any merit , or are they all just run of the mill everyday cylinders?
I know the 'Specials' were given away as part of the 4 minute conversion kit , but that's all I know!
Thanks
Steve

[52089]

I don't see anything terribly unusual there, though here in the USA, the British 23000 series cylinders are not common.

You're only missing 2 of the Specials, so I hope you try to complete the set!

Although there's nothing terribly rare there, the regular series records are all directly recorded, and the selection is above average. There are relatively few "undesirable" records like "mother" songs, sentimental songs, religious, Hawaiian, etc.

Overall it's a very nice starter group. I hope you enjoy them!

[Curt A]

That is a great collection to start with. Most of the titles are diverse, so you will get an idea of what you personally like and don't like. As was said, nothing rare or extremely unusual, but some good titles mixed in. My personal interests would be these, but these are just my own preferences:

Special B Father Eccentricities - Hill
Special F Two Rubes Swapping Horses - Porter & Meeker
23068 The Burglar Rag - J Chapman
2232 The Ragtime Dream - Collins & Harlan
2078 The International Rag - Murray
2212 All Aboard For Dixie Land - Ada Jones
1897 Waiting For The Robert E Lee - Collins & Harlan
1796 Snookey Ookums - Collins & Harlan
1605 Hitchy Koo - Collins & Harlan
1607 Sweetheart Lets Go A Walking - Billy Murray

Murray Hill, Collins & Harlan, Golden & Hughes, Bert Williams, Billy Murray and of course, many others, would be worth looking for in the future.

[Lucius1958]

A pretty decent selection: no "Damberols" there!

Bill

[OrthoSean]

Bert Williams

Bert Williams never recorded for Edison, but Billy Williams did, those would be on the 23000 series British issues and they're quite good comic songs, usually.

Sean

[welshfield]

1524 Silver Bell is among my most favorite of all cylinders. I am impressed with the dynamics where Murray and Jones either turn away from the recording horn of use some sort of muffle. Back in my "jazz band" days we appropriated this tune into our book.
I also suspect from many of the titles that you have some great comedic performances in the group. A couple of potential barbershop quartets also and at least one quality hymn production.
John

[VintageTechnologies]

A pretty decent selection: no "Damberols" there! Bill

Newcomers may not understand what "Damberols" were. Early issue Blue Amberol masters were recorded live, rather than dubbed from Diamond Disc recordings. The dubbings varied in quality, from bad to pretty good, but they still did not compare to the brilliant sound of live recordings. The early British foreign series were also recorded live, as were some other series such as the Mexican and the French.

[Chuck]

2232 The Ragtime Dream by Collins and Harlan is
a favorite of mine. Found a very nice copy of it at
Union a couple of years ago.

Great fun to take it over to Atlanta, Illinois library
and play it on their machine so that the library patrons
can have a listen!

I took both that record, and "Darky School Days" over
there last fall to "test" the machine some more...

Chuck

[BwanaJoe]

I don't see anything terribly unusual there, though here in the USA, the British 23000 series cylinders are not common.

You're only missing 2 of the Specials, so I hope you try to complete the set!

Although there's nothing terribly rare there, the regular series records are all directly recorded, and the selection is above average. There are relatively few "undesirable" records like "mother" songs, sentimental songs, religious, Hawaiian, etc.

Overall it's a very nice starter group. I hope you enjoy them!

One man's undesirable is another man's desirable. I rather like the religious tunes and a good bit of the Hawaiin and sentimental stuff as well. Take a listen before lumping everything together. You may find something you like!

[marcapra]

I'm surprised that no one has said that you can't play Blue Amberols on your Standard suitcase machine as it only plays 2 minute cylinders. Unless someone has coverted it to 2 min./4 min.