....Its Alive! Edison Frankenphone...

[antique1973]

This Edison London Console was too costly to bring back to original state so I pieced together a "Frankenphone" electric lateral phonograph with Edison horn, Brunswick tonearm, 1930's electric "flyer" brand motor, and a Victor turntable. Still needs some grill cloths but its pretty much done.


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtf3tgqJY_w[/youtube]

[Brad]

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

[estott]

That's a nice job for a make do, but that length of tubing is going to diminish your sound quality some. Keep tinkering- it's a nice pastime.

[antique1973]

That's a nice job for a make do, but that length of tubing is going to diminish your sound quality some. Keep tinkering- it's a nice pastime.

Ahh, I was thinking that maybe that vinyl tubing is absorbing some of the
sound because its not as loud as I would like. I will see if I can shorten
it a bit for now. So a metallic hose would probably get better volume right?

[antique1973]

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

Nice!

[estott]

That's a nice job for a make do, but that length of tubing is going to diminish your sound quality some. Keep tinkering- it's a nice pastime.

Ahh, I was thinking that maybe that vinyl tubing is absorbing some of the
sound because its not as loud as I would like. I will see if I can shorten
it a bit for now. So a metallic hose would probably get better volume right?

If you're any good at woodworking you might try building a simple horn from scratch- metal piping might give you more volume but I think that the length of the hose itself will cause trouble. I know this will sound like a crime but and most guys will say NO NO but you might just consider cutting the neck off that Edison horn- they aren't rare (orphaned horns are on Ebay constantly) and I think you'd be better off looking for a complete Diamond Disc machine than restoring this one. If you cut off the Edison horn and connected it properly to the Brunswick tone arm you might have a really nice sounding combination. It's going to be a Frankenphone but maybe a nice one.

[antique1973]

That's a nice job for a make do, but that length of tubing is going to diminish your sound quality some. Keep tinkering- it's a nice pastime.

Ahh, I was thinking that maybe that vinyl tubing is absorbing some of the
sound because its not as loud as I would like. I will see if I can shorten
it a bit for now. So a metallic hose would probably get better volume right?

If you're any good at woodworking you might try building a simple horn from scratch- metal piping might give you more volume but I think that the length of the hose itself will cause trouble. I know this will sound like a crime but and most guys will say NO NO but you might just consider cutting the neck off that Edison horn- they aren't rare (orphaned horns are on Ebay constantly) and I think you'd be better off looking for a complete Diamond Disc machine than restoring this one. If you cut off the Edison horn and connected it properly to the Brunswick tone arm you might have a really nice sounding combination. It's going to be a Frankenphone but maybe a nice one.

I am kind of reluctant to alter the horn for the fact that my parts inventory is pretty limited and it may come in handy later down the road. It would be fun to fabricate a wood horn though. I have a jig saw that could be used for the purpose. I could get a fat "elbow" steel pipe and bolt it to the underside of the tone arm. This would solve the "narrow passage" restriction and should bump up the volume. I will start scavenging for suitable scrap wood and see what I can come up with.

[antique1973]

Shortened the horn's tube running to the tone arm and used a loud tone Chamberlain needle with a particularly loud record. Its pretty loud now.



[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RQL02-G12w[/youtube]