Adjusting the Ultona Brunswick Reproducer.

[larryh]

I have owned my Brunswick for many years. When I first got it and rebuilt the reproducer I was quite happy with the sound. After that when the gaskets needed replacing it was good but not quite a clear as I recalled. Now that I am putting it up on my acousticedison you tube channel I haven't been as happy with some records. They seemed shriller than I recalled them being. I had replaced the gasket again with new soft ones but the adjustment of the pivot point I have never exactly understood. I think I thought that having it too tight would be a problem as well as too loose so I aimed for the middle of those extremes. However while some things did well, others still contained hard edges beyond what I might consider normal for recordings of the time. Today I once again took a comparison of the sound on the Brunswick to the Telefunken large diaphragm mica reproducer I have. That sounded warmer and not so strident. Back to the adjusting. This time I set it as reasonably tight as I would go on each side of the pivot then backed of a hair on one of the sides. Tightened the nuts to hold the positions and played the same record I had rejected yesterday as too harsh. Now it sounds far closer to where I recalled it being. I will try a few videos and see if that holds up under other types of records but I hope I have finally figured out the sweet spot of that reproducer adjustment.

Does anyone else have a general guideline for how to set those style reproducers? I couldn't seem to find anything online that gave specific advice on it. Luckily I am persistent in wanting the best I can get out of a record and finally may have found that, but time will tell.

Larry

[Columbia78]

I have owned my Brunswick for many years. When I first got it and rebuilt the reproducer I was quite happy with the sound. After that when the gaskets needed replacing it was good but not quite a clear as I recalled. Now that I am putting it up on my acousticedison you tube channel I haven't been as happy with some records. They seemed shriller than I recalled them being. I had replaced the gasket again with new soft ones but the adjustment of the pivot point I have never exactly understood. I think I thought that having it too tight would be a problem as well as too loose so I aimed for the middle of those extremes. However while some things did well, others still contained hard edges beyond what I might consider normal for recordings of the time. Today I once again took a comparison of the sound on the Brunswick to the Telefunken large diaphragm mica reproducer I have. That sounded warmer and not so strident. Back to the adjusting. This time I set it as reasonably tight as I would go on each side of the pivot then backed of a hair on one of the sides. Tightened the nuts to hold the positions and played the same record I had rejected yesterday as too harsh. Now it sounds far closer to where I recalled it being. I will try a few videos and see if that holds up under other types of records but I hope I have finally figured out the sweet spot of that reproducer adjustment.

Does anyone else have a general guideline for how to set those style reproducers? I couldn't seem to find anything online that gave specific advice on it. Luckily I am persistent in wanting the best I can get out of a record and finally may have found that, but time will tell.

Larry

Larry,

I don't have the answer for you, but I'm very interested in your plight. I have two Ultona Brunswick machines I'm trying to get to the best level of quality I can, with my limited knowledge of what I can handle myself. I bought a replacement arm and soundbox thinking I would use it on my Brunswick 110, but as it turns out, the sound is no better than what I have on there now, so I used it on my Brunswick RO, and I think the sound is improved, although neither approaches the quality of sound I can get with my good portables (HMV 102 and Brunswick Panatrope 109). I am hesitant to try replacing gaskets on these because of the pot metal factor. I may end up sending them out at some point for repair but I am curious about your adjustment of pivots and will have to take a look at that too.

I also have two Telefunken portables with those wonderful big reproducers, and know what you mean about the nice sound they produce.

Hopefully someone will have some words of wisdom here because I will watch with great interest.

Jim

https://www.youtube.com/columbia1930

[larryh]

Jim,

I have taken apart a number of Brunswick Ultona Heads over the years and never had any issues with them wanting to break or crack. The gaskets are really important. If they are hard you loose some of the volume and clarity. I got my gasket material off ebay, Its offered in 12" pieces so I ordered two sets and he leaves it all together so you don't loose any more than you have to. Mine came from Ciber Trigger. He is very fast to deliver. I wasn't going to remove the mica from the stylus bar but decided to see if it made any difference. I had a bit too much old wax on the top of the connection point on the front side. To remove that I found you could put the mica in a small bowl with some ammonia That way when its soaked a bit you can wipe off or carefully use a flat edged razor bladed to get it to move off the diaphragm. I put a very small amount where the screw goes though the back side under the washer, then a small amount on the top side and when it was all together I used a tiny butane torch to held to the stylus bar going directly to the the mica part, when it heats enough to cause some melting of the wax I let it cool and other than putting the front ring back in placre its about done.

Larry

[edisonplayer]

I got my Ultona back yesterday from the guys at Victrola Repair Service in St.Johnsbury,VT.What a difference! No more rattling and blasting!edisonplayer

[larryh]

This is timely. I have been driving my self crazy trying to get rid of a very loud buzzing sound on loud portions of vocals, mostly operatic. It will do it once in a while also on really loud other types but nothing like the vocals.. What I don't get is the thing played though those beautifully when I first rebuilt it probably 40 years or more ago by now. Its had one other rebuild which didn't do it either. But now I have done everything I can think of including switching the rear edison mica piece to the front and adjusting everything as close to what I think it needs and it still persist. I am at my wits end on this one. I can record mostly classical selections of symphony or piano, violin, but vocals no.

Do you have a link to that service your mentioning.

[edisonplayer]

Sure! Their website is victrolarepairservice.com edisonplayer

[larryh]

Thanks for the address.

Oddly last night when I went to change a needle I found the stylus bar movement was far more than when I had adjusted it last, or at least that is how it seemed. I reset one of the screws it pivots on and it became much clearer and the annoying buzz was 99% better. But today when I attempted to make a slight change in the screws to see if I could improve it a bit more, the whole problem returned. The adjustments between the two set screws evidently is rather tricky. I tired for two hours to get it to the point where I could resume videos of it and still never got it to a satisfactory sound. Hopefully I can remedy it again. The problem seems to be that the small hole the pivots are supposed to enter is difficult to see once you are in that spot it still has to be tightened just so to work right.

[Henry]

Adjustments are indeed critical. Years ago I had my Exhibition rebuilt by Victrola Repair Service, and while they did a good job, I felt that I (inexperienced novice that I was) could squeeze a bit more performance out of it. So I set about the task of fiddling with the front gaskets, diaphragm, needle bar, etc. I ended up disassembling the whole thing and putting it back together with the front gaskets properly oriented to Victor specs (ends of the two gaskets offset by 180º, tip of needle bar just touching diaphragm, and maybe some other now-forgotten details). The end results surpassed my expectations. I will say that Victrola Repair Service used excellent gasket material: after many years, it's still soft and pliable. Note: I'm picky. YMMV.

[Columbia78]

My experience with Victrola Repair Service was not very good. I asked them to service a Columbia portable and they wanted to replace a metal diaphragm on the soundbox with mica. Also put a Victrola platter on it, totally wrong, seemed like they had no interest in keeping anything authentic at all. I don't trust them.

[larryh]

I ordered new Diaphragms for the Brunswick. As so many new diaphragms it had very sad sound. Far worse than I was experiencing, low volume and poor tone. So back to the Original one which at least has some life to it. I am still not exactly happy with the overall sound on some records, to overbearing no matter what I use for a needle, or how far in or out I have it. Maybe I just forget how harsh some of those early attempts at orchestral pieces were after listening to my Edison for some time. Today I am toying with my two portables, the Panatrope and Telefunken. Each has a sound somewhat of its own. The Brunswick can be some larger sounding and I found that if I don't push the needle in all the way I am getting clearer sound than if I do. I discovered that when having issues on the Ultona head. I have a feeling the Panatrope while in very good condition has some issue still with the pivot points or if it has some kind of gasket material that might be aged too much? I can't find a thing on line about service on that reproducer. The Telefunken has a deeper sound in places, sort of surprising for tiny case. It is the same it appears as the HMV 101 from what I can tell. Oddly it won't play though many records and you have to wind it to the near breaking point to get many to make it. I have a Orthophonic portable of the larger early version here that the reproducer was wrecked by a rebuilder I sent it too. I have been wondering if I could possibly rig the tone arm from the Telefunken to sit over the opening to the horn and just see how that might sound. The victor will play though all records without winding down and has a way larger horn, although maybe the design isn't as suitable to the tone arm? . A real plus. I am looking at possible other portables that may have decent motors and sound, the site called "The Best Portables in the World" is a real jewel for the detailed information it has. I hauled that large Brunswick over to my house from my moms next door to make recordings of the records but in some ways I think the portable beat out the earlier horn type acoustic machines. When I went back in my videos a couple nights ago and played some with the portables in the same spot as the upright is now, the sound was far more open an to me appealing. That says something for the quality of sound they could produce. At least on many records.