What's your favorite Phonograph?

[beaumonde]

The brass horn on the Vic VI in the Eldridge Johnson museum (Dover, Delaware) has a decal, but perhaps that was added on by a later collector?

I was assuming that mine originally had a decal, but perhaps (and hopefully) I was mistaken.

[Steve]

I don't think HMV's ever had decals either as the 'HMV' brass horn (24") was only available until 1908 when the wooden horns effectively took over as the 'luxury' items. After that Gramophone & Typewriter Co. reverted back to being Gramophone Co. and adopted the 'HMV' trademark so I think the decal comes too late for the brass horn?

I've never seen any references to decals on the Victors either but I'm not the right person to say either way about that.

[Valecnik]

The Mills Novelty Company of Chicago made an all-electric violin/piano called the Violano-Virtuoso. They use a 44-note piano and were made in single- and double-violin models, as well as string quartets with viola and cello added, and even optional percussion units.

Ludwig Hupfeld AG of Germany produced the Phonoliszt Violina. These are all-pneumatically actuated systems driven by an electric pump. The piano portion consists of an 88-note reproducing piano; and the violin is actually three violins mounted upside down and surrounded by a rotating circular horsehair bow. The bow has variable speed of rotations and plays only one string on each violin. The violins are pushed forward against the bow by a pneumatic.

There were many more Phonoliszts built than Violano-Virtuosos, but due to the delicacy of the mechanisms, most were scrapped when they ceased to work. The robust Mills instruments survived in much greater numbers. A Mills can be had for about $25K or so, but a Phonoliszt will set you back ten times that much if you could even find one!

There are videos of both types of violin players on YouTube:


Now . . . which one do you prefer?

Well... you know me. I'd prefer both. Siegfried Wendel has a museum in Rüdesheim Germany with several of these types of instruments. Some of them are absolutely huge. I'll be seeing them (and hearing them) this weekend when he does his open house in conjunction with the phonograph show there. Probably the only sad thing about the dissemination of the phonograph was that it quickly obsoleted thse instruments.

[Kirkwood]

That Hupfeld is playing that oh-so-American song "Home in Pasadena"! You can hear another version on Youtube by theatre organist Jim Riggs, it's a great piano-organ duet.

I have heard both violin players in person, and the Hupfeld is wonderful, even if only for the full 88-note scale reproducing piano. The Mills has (I think) only 44 notes to the piano section, which resulted in some truncated arrangements of a few pieces. On the Mills, the foxtrots have a distinctive plunkety-plunkety arrangement to the piano portion of the songs. However John is right----the Mills instruments seem to have soldiered on for years and survived in greater numbers. This is due in part to the largely electrical mechanics of the player, versus the rubber hoses and leather of the more pneumatic driven Hupfeld. By the way, the bowing wheel of the Hupfeld speeds up and slows down to achieve louder and softer passages of the violin, so they were able to achieve a more "musical" performance. I didn't know these videos were on Youtube, thanks for posting both of them~!

[JohnM]

There are a number of violin-player videos on YouTube of both types and many other mechanical instruments as well!

[Valecnik]

By the way, the bowing wheel of the Hupfeld speeds up and slows down to achieve louder and softer passages of the violin, so they were able to achieve a more "musical" performance. I didn't know these videos were on Youtube, thanks for posting both of them~!

One some models, are not the panels of the bowing wheel filled with a decorated paper or plastic insert of sort and lit from inside the wheel?

[Jerry B.]

My next one is my favorite. I'm hoping to run into a Vernis Martin XVIII in the day or two. I might settle for a XVI. Jerry

[JohnM]

By the way, the bowing wheel of the Hupfeld speeds up and slows down to achieve louder and softer passages of the violin, so they were able to achieve a more "musical" performance. I didn't know these videos were on Youtube, thanks for posting both of them~!

One some models, are not the panels of the bowing wheel filled with a decorated paper or plastic insert of sort and lit from inside the wheel?

I've only seen/heard one Phonoliszt in person at the Nethercutt collection in California, so I can't speak to that. I can see how it could be done, but hard to imagine wanting to cover the violins. When spinning fast, the panels would be just a blur.

I have seen big Welte Wotans and Popper instruments with animated backlit scenic panels.