Columbia BGT Graphophone

Website · Post by **FellowCollector** » Sun Jul 31, 2016 8:43 am

For anyone interested, here is a video I recently posted on my YouTube channel featuring my completely original circa 1908/1909 Columbia Graphophone model BGT. In my opinion, this was the most stunning in appearance of all of Columbia's cylinder Graphophone models. For contemporary customers with a little extra 'coin' this model had it all: a very attractive solid mahogany cabinet with turned corner pillars and rounded corners with delicate stepped top and base moulding, all of the top works heavily nickel plated and hand polished, extra long '20th Century' mandrel, #12 Lyric reproducer set within the appealing Lyre style carriage connected to an innovative tonearm with large rear mounted nickel plated horn (which I prefer over the later mahogany horn), powerful 4-spring motor that will play MANY cylinders on one winding and even delicately placed oil tubes in the rear of the bed plate for easy lubrication of needful motor parts. A very nice package indeed, yet very few of this model were sold and fewer survive today. This is a recent acquisition so I've not yet had an opportunity to rebuild the reproducer and disassemble and restore the motor to provide the audio performance it is capable of and that I demand from my phonographs. But I thought I would share an early peek just as it sits now after a quick polish of the original nickel and replacing the belt. By the way, I use FLITZ polish which is the best polish I have ever used on old nickel.

Hope you enjoy the video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKO93XN_LCo[/youtube]

Doug

Post by **Phono-Phan** » Sun Jul 31, 2016 9:12 am

Absolutely beautiful!!! Thanks for sharing.
Ken

Website · Post by **FellowCollector** » Mon Aug 01, 2016 8:46 am

Thanks for your gracious comments, Ken. Below are a couple of 'before' pictures and a few 'after' pictures. I hand polished (until my arms were tired) the old faded nickel using FLITZ and for the cabinet I used GOJO Original Formula followed by Howard Feed-N-Wax. Still a ways to go but when I'm done with the disassembling and rebuilding the motor and rebuilding the reproducer it should be pretty good.

OrthoSean · Post by **OrthoSean** » Mon Aug 01, 2016 9:00 am

Doug,

That really is a beauty! I'm going to have to run over to Pep Boys and get some Flitz. My BET sure would look nice all polished up like that. I still regret not pursuing a BGT that my parents neighbors had for years. It's now of course "long gone", who knows where it went.

Sean

Post by **gramophone78** » Mon Aug 01, 2016 9:05 am

Doug, I wish I knew more about these. It is a very nice looking machine....a real keeper.

I'm sure the Wife is saying...."if you only spent that time on our lawn".....

.

Post by **fran604g** » Mon Aug 01, 2016 9:15 am

Doug, I agree wholeheartedly! The BGT was the epitome of the Graphophone Cylinder models (arguably aside from the BC with Higham reproducer.)

I would love to own one someday.

Nice work!

Best,
Fran

Website · Post by **FellowCollector** » Mon Aug 01, 2016 9:39 am

OrthoSean wrote:Doug,

That really is a beauty! I'm going to have to run over to Pep Boys and get some Flitz. My BET sure would look nice all polished up like that. I still regret not pursuing a BGT that my parents neighbors had for years. It's now of course "long gone", who knows where it went.

Sean

Thanks for your kind comments, Sean! You will love FLITZ! Shortly after I got this machine home I ran over to our local Ace Hardware and purchased 3 different polishes: Nevr-Dull, Cape Cod Metal Polishing Cloths and FLITZ. FLITZ seemed to have the highest review ratings for polishing old nickel according to many users through my Google searches - but the other two were also mentioned.

My idea was to try each one on ONE petal of the nickel horn and compare each petal when I was done for overall shine. I first tried the Nevr-Dull which I've used for many years. It was ok but still left a haze on the petal I applied it on. Next I tried the Cape Cod Metal Polishing Cloth on another horn petal. It did hardly anything. Finally, I applied FLITZ. I WAS AMAZED! I now knew that all of those people who commented on FLITZ were right! And so I went right back to Ace Hardware and bought 2 more tubes of FLITZ. It took me the rest of the day sitting outside under a shade umbrella to do the horn and the top works but when I was done I was very pleased. It's actually very gratifying to see that haze go away and the shine come through after a little elbow grease.

Your model BET will thank you for using the FLITZ. I have a BE but not a BET which is much more difficult to find. The BET and BFT are beautiful machines as well. As I recall yours is a 2/4 minute which is a real bonus! My BGT is 2 minute only but it's OK as I love to play 2 minute cylinders.

I missed out on a nice Columbia BFT that was at an estate sale a couple of years ago in Connecticut. It was advertised impromptu style the morning of the sale (rats!!) and I knew that I couldn't get there before the start of the sale. I was sure it would sell within the first hour of the sale and I said to heck with it. But it looked nice and all original. Rats!

Would love to see pics of your BET sometime! Thanks again, Sean!

Doug

Website · Post by **FellowCollector** » Mon Aug 01, 2016 9:47 am

gramophone78 wrote:Doug, I wish I knew more about these. It is a very nice looking machine....a real keeper.

I'm sure the Wife is saying...."if you only spent that time on our lawn"..... .

Thanks Wayne! My wife has been pretty tolerant of my collecting over the years but lately she has been suggesting that I begin clearing out "...some of your stuff that you don't even use anymore...you can't even get to some of it...so why are you keeping it?"

Doug

Website · Post by **FellowCollector** » Mon Aug 01, 2016 9:56 am

fran604g wrote:Doug, I agree wholeheartedly! The BGT was the epitome of the Graphophone Cylinder models (arguably aside from the BC with Higham reproducer.)

I would love to own one someday.

Nice work!

Best,
Fran

Thanks Fran! I had looked for a decent Columbia BG or better yet a BGT for years and was pleased to finally find this one. I have a couple of Columbia BC's - one in the very fancy cabinet. They are great 'lookers' but I can't figure out how to get them to play so well with their Higham reproducers so they're 'shelf sitters' (be careful how you say that!

).

I've watched Reid Welch's video below many times for pointers. (Reid has a great voice and I enjoy listening to him speak in this video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPUoI32SGDM

It sure looks like a lot of work to get the Higham working right as Reid did all those years ago. And I'm a real tinkerer too!!

Thanks again for the kind comments!

Doug

phonogfp · Post by **phonogfp** » Mon Aug 01, 2016 10:10 am

Beautiful BGT, Doug.

I too have used Nevr-Dull for years, but after seeing your "before & after" shots and reading of your experiment, I'll be trying Flitz.

The banner decals on the BG/BGTs seem to often age poorly, but yours looks nice. By the way, the decal suggests your BGT dates from 1905/06. It may have started life as a BG and then been upgraded by a dealer or the original owner. The awards decal on the rear may offer additional clues. What's the last date displayed on it?

Congratulations again on a wonderful find.

George P.

Columbia BGT Graphophone

Columbia BGT Graphophone

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