EMG Register to assist dating and EMG/Expert synopsis.

[emgcr]

And another welcome to the forum Robin---I too have a much cherished Junior (earlier, oak veneered, from Rathbone Place with custom built stand--but no record storage facility). Your original bill of sale is truly wonderful and a very rare discovery so thank you greatly for sharing. I have never seen another. It seems to have been signed by Esther (Ester ?) Ginn---Michael's wife I think. Her hand writing is not the clearest and I can see that your father's address was in Merrow near Guildford but cannot make out the surname ?

The whole invoice is full of fascinating detail and rewards great scrutiny. I can read some of the main description of " To special Expert mahogany (veneer ?) ? gramophone £ 22-10-0" and it is intriguing to speculate upon the price reduction of 10%---possibly a sign of the times or cheaper veneer ? "Best type of AC Ele. motor £1-0-0" and "Handmade record stand to match £6-0-0". Then "150 Expert fibres 6 shillings". Who knows what the "Belling-see Fuse Box 3 shillings and 3 pence" referred to ? The Belling company was a well-known appliance producer at the time.

The reference "Feb 14/35" is interesting particularly as it is opposite the number "807". There may or may not be a connection as you say but might it be that the gramophone was ordered on 14th February 1935 ? A Valentine thought for your mother ?! As far as we know, nobody has ever found a serial number on any Expert gramophone so the 807 is likely to have been the invoice number---but, intriguingly, perhaps not ?

Ginn was well-known for his "salesmanship" and the reference to "Established 1920" pushes the boundaries a little perhaps ? I have also never seen a reference in print to Dave Phillips being described as an "Acoustician". What a great word---and occupation ! Working hours of 9am to 6.30pm would be appropriate for potential customers on their way home and half-day working on Saturdays was normal.

One word of warning on the motor front. The casing of that particular model is made from Mazak (Pot metal which can deteriorate according to the percentage of incorporated lead and some have a habit of disintegrating---can be violent !). However, many are fine and yours looks to have no problems.

The number 527 on the bottom of the tonearm bearing flange seems to indicate an item manufacturing number rather than a serial number of the complete instrument. However, this is a not certain and may possibly be an indication of the overall date. My own bears the number 340.

I am sure others will have more points to add.

[physicist]

Graham: As I suspected, the receipt is of interest. I'm afraid that I need to correct a couple of your assumptions.

My father bought the machine second hand from the original owner in 1948 (without the stand). It is pure good fortune that he got the original paperwork with it. The fuse box on the receipt was Belling Lee - I have no further information on this.

I had assumed the signature was E M Ginn's rather than his wife's - it bears a considerable similarity to the trade mark at the top of the receipt.

As you say, it appears that the order was received Feb 14 1935 and the delivery didn't happen until October - possibly indicating that they were busy in that year?
I agree that the 807 receipt number and the 527 number on the tone arm could be consistent with your other information on the rate of Expert production. I'd be very surprised if there had only been 807 invoices by 1935, they must have been selling lots of small items (needles etc.) which is why I had assumed that it was
a stamped receipt number.

[kirtley2012]

Lovely looking Junior, the motor is the same as in my Junior, however mine was sent back to the works for conversion to the collaro electric motor as it was originally spring powered, the veneers are the same pattern too, only mine done in Oak, I wonder if this suggests mine is near to the date of yours, I'd assumed it was 1933, perhaps it's a little later

The receipt is a wonderful thing to have, I don't believe I've seen an original reciept from an EMG or Expert before, I'd keep that in a safe place, nice to have some written history on your machine, so much is often speculated with them, the horn especially looks in wonderful condition.

Has it been getting regular play over its lifetime?

[Orchorsol]

Here's a photo of my Expert Junior with its original record cabinet base, likely similar to the one yours originally had Robin.

[Oedipus]

Re numbers, my Mark X has no number at all on top of the motor board (to give its correct name), but it does have the number 10 stamped on the underside. Perhaps that just means it's a Mark 10?
Incidentally, the EMG business folded in 19780, but the Expert name survives as the Expert Stylus company.

[Oedipus]

Among a collection of gramophone-related press cuttings I was given recently was an Expert advertisement from The Gramophone of February 1935. It concerned the Dynamic sound box, now available "for sale to the general public". It had been available from January 1934,said the blurb, but only to the owners of Expert machines.

I was surprised to learn that the Dynamic did not appear until 1934, the two-spring 'Standard' having been previously fitted to all models. I went back to the January 1934 issue, and found Ginn advertising his Audio Player on one page and the established models on another -- with no reference to a new sound box, but strong emphasis on the fact that the original Expert of 1930 was still being made without any change!

I then went to the next issue I had, which was for March 1934. This did indeed refer to the Standard and Dynamic sound boxes, but it also listed a "Special", available at 65/-. Yes, the same price as the Dynamic. Was this something different, or was this a Ginn scheme making the Dynamic available exclusively to Expert owners, while selling the same thing to any old customer under a different name?

Or could the Special and the Dynamic be the two different sizes?


I attach a scan of the March 1934 ad

[Idelia412]

Hello everyone,

I have an EMG Mark IX that I acquired back in 1985 when I lived in Harrogate,North Yorkshire in 1985. Mine has the stepped feet that put it in the early manufacturing from what I have found out. The number on my motor board is 690. It has the Garrard Universal motor that has a small back panel that has screws to select voltage and cycles. Since I live in the states, I was able to remove the screws and set them to 120 volts 60 cycles and retain the British plug and cord and use an adapter for a U.S. plug. Some on this site may have seen my machine in the past, but I don't think I shared my number (Serial Number?) before. I had always wanted one of these machines before I even arrived in Harrogate and knew what I was looking for. I have been a collector of phonograhs since 1962. I never did find an Export machine but am very happy with my EMG. It sounds much better than any Orthophonic Victor machine and I have had a Victor Credenza Orthophonic and a Victor 10-50 Orthophonic Automatic that changed its own records. Neither machine could not compare to the EMG. If you search on Youtube using my ID Idelia412 you will see several posts of it playing.

[Steve]

Incidentally, the EMG business folded in 19780, but the Expert name survives as the Expert Stylus company.

Well, I never knew that.

They say you learn something new every day and I certainly just did!

For what it's worth I have the pedestal (Special Model - floor standing) version of the Expert Senior which apparently belonged to Edward Creece Snr., who worked for Expert and was highly skilled working on soundboxes.

The story says he lost an arm following an unfortunate accident with an aeroplane propeller. How he managed to tune soundboxes with one arm is beyond me.

Has anyone else heard this?

[physicist]

The story says he lost an arm following an unfortunate accident with an aeroplane propeller. How he managed to tune soundboxes with one arm is beyond me.

Has anyone else heard this?

I suspect this anecdote comes from an article written by Ginn's son Joe:

http://www.gramophonemuseum.com/images/ ... e-Ginn.pdf

"He was a mechanic in the Royal Flying Corps in World War 1 where he was unfortunate enough to suffer a severe accident which very nearly cost him his right arm, and he had very little use in that arm."

[BassetHoundTrio]

You scored a great bargain, Pete! Those machines sell for thousands these days. Glad to see it listed on the list of known surviving EMGs.

Hello everyone,

I have an EMG Mark IX that I acquired back in 1985 when I lived in Harrogate,North Yorkshire in 1985. Mine has the stepped feet that put it in the early manufacturing from what I have found out. The number on my motor board is 690. It has the Garrard Universal motor that has a small back panel that has screws to select voltage and cycles. Since I live in the states, I was able to remove the screws and set them to 120 volts 60 cycles and retain the British plug and cord and use an adapter for a U.S. plug. Some on this site may have seen my machine in the past, but I don't think I shared my number (Serial Number?) before. I had always wanted one of these machines before I even arrived in Harrogate and knew what I was looking for. I have been a collector of phonograhs since 1962. I never did find an Export machine but am very happy with my EMG. It sounds much better than any Orthophonic Victor machine and I have had a Victor Credenza Orthophonic and a Victor 10-50 Orthophonic Automatic that changed its own records. Neither machine could not compare to the EMG. If you search on Youtube using my ID Idelia412 you will see several posts of it playing.