Edison Home Questions +recording

[tonystardis]

Just got an Edison home with a 2-4 minute planetary gear system in the upper pulley.Curious is this an Edison part or some kind of generic aftermarket part. It came with a model C reproducer and currently only works as a two minute machine,when I get the four minute working(posted in wanted for parts)do I need another reproducer to play 4min cylinders?
I borrowed a recording head from the guy I bought it from and would like to make him a hot jazz record.The machine came with a large morning glory type horn,would this work best or would something with a heavier wall work best.My theory is thicker wall less sound waves absorbed by the horn forcing them down to the recorder? But what do I know!

[Aaron]

Hello, and welcome into the hobby!

For playing 4 minute records you will indeed need a different reproducer. Yours is a model "C" and the reproducer you will need will be a model "H". 2 minute vs. 4 minute records have different grooves per inches. So the two different reproducers have different styli to accommodate for the different sizes of grooves.

Recording is a very tricky thing, but very fun! When recording it is sometimes best to do a few tests with the style of music you want to record and to try a few different horns. Some horns work better for different types of music. And while recording, a good hint is to have the cylinder spinning on the mandrel for a while with a light bulb close to it to heat up the wax slightly to make for easier recording. It's also sometimes better to talk "across" the horn instead of directly into it. You will also need a blank wax cylinder. Or you can blank one that you may have by rubbing it down with turpentine. But be sure the cylinder is brown wax and be sure it’s not a valuable/playable record, blanking it will make the last song useless.

You also mention the Edison parts being "generic". If possible could you post some picture? I'm sure someone here could help you identify them.

Happy collecting!
Aaron

[edisonphonoworks]

http://members.tripod.com/~edison_1/id7.html This is a page to help you record better. A morning glory horn will work fine for music recording, you may want to belt a towel around the outside of the horn, have a lamp heating the machine and another lamp about a foot or 2 above the blanks, so they are warm when they go on, temperature really changes the surface noise quality, even if the blank is a little rough, a warm blank and a sharp cutter will still make a pretty quiet recording. Watch the bass drum they spoil recordings, but if it is some good jazz with tuba and high hat, rather, you should do just fine.

[tonystardis]

Thanx guys for your thoughts!! Warming the record is a fantastic suggestion. Here is a pic of what I actually have for gearing. Not really new to phonos in general but I am new to cylinder machines.They were always out of my price range.Disk phonographs can always be found for 25.00-100.00 at the flea market,cylinder machines are a harder flea market item to snatch up.Thinking about it in the past few years of summer sunday mornings I dont remember any but have bought bunches of victrolas and either parted them or cleaned em up and passed em on.

[Shane]

Yup, that's the planetary gear 2/4 system that came on Home models. It is an Edison part, not an aftermarket item. The 2/4 gearing on the Home models is a bit more complicated than what Edison came up with for the Standards. I fooled around with one of these once, but since the owner of the machine only cared about it playing 2 minute cylinders, I didn't go too deeply into it. The one I had was all jammed up and "stuck" in 2 minute mode.

Wyatt's Musical Americana Has more info on how these gears work:

http://www.wyattsmusical.com/2-4mech.html

[tonystardis]

Thanx Shane for the info, and the link!!