Brunswick Cortez - Texas Estate Sale find

[AZ*]

Here are some photos of the Brunswick Cortez I purchased at the estate sale in Central Texas that was mentioned in this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=49545

I brought the Cortez home today. The lady at the estate sale let me look it over closely yesterday before I agreed to buy it. I wound it, and was able to determine there were no broken or slipping mainsprings. The reproducer did not appear to have any obvious damage. The estate sale lady also allowed me to remove the grille to look at the horn, and it looked OK. Once I got the Cortez in the garage this afternoon, I taped together the tonearm temporarily and played a few records. It sounded pretty nice, no buzzing, blasting or rattling of the reproducer. The motor ran smoothly, kept an even speed and seemed to have plenty of power. There are a few small or cosmetic issues (missing knob, dings, etc.), but nothing major. I can fix those myself. The walnut veneer is in nice shape, including the top. I'm sure the tonearm is fixable. The original packing list, instruction manual and wrapper/envelope were still with the machine.

[gunnarthefeisty]

Nice! I have the Cortez's slightly larger brother- the Hampton

[Phono-Phan]

That sure is a beauty!!!! They sound awesome with a rebuilt reproducer and an airtight horn connection. I would suggest sending the reproducer to Wyatt Marcus for rebuilding. He goes by Mica Monster here.

[BillH_NJ]

Great find!

[JerryVan]

That appears to be a VERY nice example! Congrats!

[dzavracky]

Wowwwww!!! That’s in super nice shape, I wish the gold on my tonearm was as nice as yours!

David

[Wolfe]

1927 or so and they're still recommending you set the turntable to 80 rpm.

Nice looking machine. Nice spruce horn.

[drh]

1927 or so and they're still recommending you set the turntable to 80 rpm. ...

Up until fairly recently, I thought that with the adoption of electric recording, and with it electric cutting lathes, record speed became reliably 78 RPM. After some fairly intensive work at transferring classical sets to the computer in the past year or so, however, I've come to realize that's not so; Victor kept right on churning out "78" sets at 75 or 76, and sometimes at other "off" speeds, right up into the late '20s, and other labels remained similarly "off" what we consider standard speed. I think the dividing line for things settling down to a reasonably reliable 78.26 came around 1930. For example, a 1927-28 Victor set of Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli (Westminster Choir--Victor 35941-4, originally would have been by HMV), as best I could determine, ran at 82 or 84 RPM, depending on the record side.

These speeds were chosen deliberately, not to be confused with the intra-side speed creep of some mid- to late '20s English Columbia sets.

[RAK402]

Congratulations on the acquisition of your Brunswick Cortez!

I got one of these a few years back and in it my favorite phonograph.

I had never seen the manual for one, so thank you for posting that.

The tone arms used to show up on ebay periodically.

[gramophoneshane]

Nice! I have the Cortez's slightly larger brother- the Hampton

I always thought the Cortez was Brunswick's largest accoustic machine.
Is it just the cabinet that is slightly larger on the Hampton, or is the horn also bigger than in the Cortez?