HMV 157, removal of horn

[nostalgia]

Does someone know if the frames holding/surrounding the horn are also glued, or only screwed?
I am trying to help someone who need a horn from a 157, and would like to keep his own cabinet, since it is inherited.

If it is glued, I will think twice trying to remove the frame...

[Inigo]

In the 157 i don't know... But in the 194 you first remove the tonearm and you'll see the screws that fix the horn throat to the tonearm board. You remove them.
Then remove the back board to access the horn from behind. You can unscrew the throat pipe J that descends from the tonearm. It has four screws to the horn entrance. It can prevent the horn extraction.
Then go to the front. Unscrew and extract the grille. You'll see that the horn mouth is screwed by the outer edge all around the cabinet. Remove all these screws.
Hi to the back again, and look for any attachments of the horn body to the cabinet sides and bottom boards. It may have some L legs with screws. Unscrew them.
Then go again to the front and extract the horn body from the cabinet.
Keep all the screws, as they are needed to reassemble the horn in the new cabinet.
Why are you destroying one 157 to give the horn to other machine? Is your machine our of any hope to be restored? It may be difficult to find another horn for your machine...

[nostalgia]

I removed the tonearm, as normal, and the brackets holding the tonearm, and the inner wooden board surrounding the tonearm, as well as the screws holding the horn.
The horn was still stuck, and the next necessary step to take, would be to remove the wooden front frame, as shown on photo. The parts of this frame are however glued together, and the wood is in addtion atttached in a manner that I guess in English is called tongue and groove, as we also can see on the photo. The upper part of the horn is bending under this frame, and is impossible to relocate without detaching the frame. On the 157 there is no way to access the horn from the back of the cabinet, contrary to the 194 and 163 etc.

So why would I consider destroying, or removing the horn? Well, this man contacted me, and had a HNV 157 without a horn, inherited from his parents. I started to tell him that removing the horn on my 157, would leave my 157 in the same way as his cabinet, and that the price of the horn would for me not be too far from selling an overhauled 157, since my plan is to overhaul the cabinet. When I asked if he had the tonearm, the metal parts holding the tonearm etc, he never replied. In addition I told him the 32 motor on his machine most likely also would need a service, so in total..he maybe felt this would become too pricey. We all know, putting a HMV cabinet gramophone back to its original condition is not an easy task for everyone out there, and even if one know how to do it, and have the correct parts, it takes time, patience and knowledge to do it rightly.

The problem for this man, is of course that horns for a 157 are not found everywhere, and for sure not in my area. I have during the last 3 years seen only two complete HMV 157 gramophones here. After googling, I was able to find a 157 horn was listed for sale on Ebay UK in the past, for € 10, but it was left unsold. That said, one of course has to be at the right spot at the right time when such parts are offered to find it.

My mahogany 157 is keeping its horn now, decision made.

[Marco Gilardetti]

Good decision, methinks.

It's weird, though. There must be away to extract the horn. In 163s there are a pair of slats on the front sides of the horn that pop off when the horn is pushed forward from behind. Had anyone glued these two slats in the past, there would be no way to extract the horn any longer. Is it possible that your 157 had been messed up in a similar way?

[nostalgia]

Now it is time to correct my wrongs, so no one start believing my wrongs!
Marco, quite rigthtly, there is a way to remove the horn without starting to split glued parts of the frame holding the motor board.
The procedure does not involve removing the back of the cabinet though, as on the 163, 194 etc.

My gramophone has not been tampered with, because when checking again, in daylight, I started to think one had to pull the grill upwards and then later on remove the horn, since the grill was impossible to remove from the front. So...what do you check then? The screws holding the grill, I had in the dark evening some days ago,.,,forgotten to remove one of the screws holding the grill to the cabinet !

I removed the screw, and the grill was easy to remove by carefully pulling it out, not upwards. When having done so, the screws holding the horn in front came into sight, and by removing those screws the horn should be fairly easy to remove, after first unscrewing the tonearm and the base holding the tone arm to the horn.

I will not remove the horn, since there is no need to do it, but now I know how to do it, and also...if anyone in here ever need to do it, we now know how not to do it.
NO need to tear apart any glued parts !

[Inigo]

Aha... I'm glad you found it!