Was A Triangular Needle Chuck Available On The Concert?

[Jerry B.]

We know that tens of thousands Exhibition sound boxes were converted to triangular needle chucks to accommodate fibre needles. We also know that the Victor Concert sound box was a buyers option well into the Victor rear mount horn era. Were owners of machines with the Concert ever offered the option to convert to a triangular needle chuck? When owners were given the option what percentage picked the Concert over the Exhibition? Any estimates?

Jerry Blais

[edisonclassm]

Fibre needles were offered with the needle chuck end turned down round to accommodate the round hole in the earlier Exhibition reproducers as well as the Concert reproducers if the owner so chose to use them

[Phonofreak]

Also, By the time the triangular needle bars came out, the Concert reproducer was pretty much obsolete.
Harvey Kravitz

[Jerry B.]

Victor machine catalogs are very interesting. In the tapered arm era some catalogs offered the Concert as standard equipment with the Exhibition available on request. Other catalogs offered exactly the opposite. I doubt if there is a Forum member that would argue that a Concert is a better performing sound box than an Exhibition. Plus the Exhibition has an advantage of being easily serviced. But some original buyers bought machines with the Concert sound box. Were those owners offered the option of changing the needle chuck to accept a fibre needle? Can anyone provide a photo of a Concert modified in that way?

Thanks, Jerry Blais

[phonogfp]

I doubt if there is a Forum member that would argue that a Concert is a better performing sound box than an Exhibition.

Wow - - that was not my understanding. I've never heard good things about the performance of the Concert.

George P.

EDIT: Ooops - I see what you're saying. No forum member would claim that the Concert is better than the Exhibition. Sorry - - I guess I was a little foggy for a moment!

[edisonclassm]

The Concert reproducer is a very poor design. It utilizes a rather non compliant torsion spring as the fulcrum point for the needle bar causing incredible wear and tear to the records. That is why most of the early Monarch records are worn out and tough to listen to. The exhibition reproducer isn't much better but the design allows for a little more compliance reducing wear and tear to the records. The larger diaphragm in the exhibition is less strident sounding when playing records. FYI the torsion springs in most Concert reproducers are broken or about to break due to work hardening through playing records. Twisting back and forth through the record grooves causes the spring to work harden until the ultimate strength is achieved then it becomes so brittle it breaks. Auxetophone reproducers use the exact same spring so virtually all of those have broken as well. I've replaced a couple of dozen of them over the years. Columbia Reproducers were the most compliant of all the designs with the exception of their version of the Concert which mimicked Victors design. The best design was Columbia's Grafonola reproducer which used two adjustable pivot point bearings at the fulcrum and a large diaphragm. Victor didn't "get it" until the Orthophonic reproducer