Aeolian Vocalian

[Lah Ca]

It looks very nice and authentic!

Thanks.

[Lah Ca]

5.

Restoration or Just Left Stewed in Its Own Juices?

With a vintage item that is a non-functional wreck, restoration is the obvious choice.

But where the item is not a wreck, the choice is not so clear, I would think.

With musical instruments, a vintage instrument that is structurally sound and functional with age-appropriate wear is more highly valued by collectors (if not always musicians) than one that is restored to like new condition. My friends who deal in vintage British sports cars say the same is true for these cars. I am told, monetary profit is generally not a good motivation for restoration – you seldom ever get your money and time back. Restoration because of love and recreational enjoyment is, however, a valid reward in itself.

I don’t know about talking machines, but in my short time observing sale listings, I note that restored machines with very high (and fair considering the work put in) price tags move slowly or not at all, especially if they are off-brand models – the exceptions here seem to be extremely rare, highly desirable, early, historically important machines that have been restored from wrecks to like new condition. What sells quickly are modestly priced, functional machines with appropriate age-related wear, both main and off brands.

My Aeolian-Vocalian machine was not expensive. I paid less than the equivalent of $100 US for it, this price including a modest stack of 20+ or so records with some acoustically recorded items. It seems to be a moderately rare machine, but it certainly cannot be called valuable within the larger context of all talking machine values.

It appears to be mostly original. It is (in the poor to excellent scale) in very good working order. It is also in good/very-good cosmetic condition.

Cabinet
It shows no sign of any refinishing. It has an old, grimy, hard varnish (my guess) finish. There is the gunge of decades and decades in the hard to access areas (corners and edges) of the outside. There are small flecks of ancient, very faded, deteriorating, oil-based house paint here and there on the outside. There is some damage to the cabinet but only internally: it appears as if someone spilled water into the turntable chamber; this ran down into the Graduola pocket and then seeped out across the the bottom of the cabinet. Where the water was accessible for clean up and where it did not stay pooled for long there is no damage, but some of the veneer in the Graduola pocket and on the bottom of the cabinet is water-stained and checked. The shelving unit has been ripped out of the cabinet, but the water damage was done after this modification.

I am using Gibson guitar polish to clean the cabinet. It is safe for varnish, nitro, shellac, tung oil, and poly finishes. The grime is slowly disappearing and the finish is coming alive, richer deeper colour and more definition in the figure of the quarter-sawn oak.

As discussed above (in this thread), restoring the cabinet shelving with some facsimile is within my skill set, but I have no idea where I could possibly obtain plywood of a similar high quality grade to that originally used. Modern ¼” and 3/8ths” plywood is garbage. I think my best bet here is do nothing and/or wait for a dead A-V machine with intact shelving to fall into my hands – not holding my breath.

Also as discussed above, the original silk grill cloth was disintegrating, probably self-destructing because of a vivid synthetic dye used in its fabric. I have replaced this with a very similar silk to the original (see above). This cosmetic restoration was entirely worthwhile, and it is definitely entirely a cosmetic restoration as there is absolutely no noticeable difference in sound quality or volume with the grill door (new cloth in place) closed or open.

Wear and Tarnish on Plating
There is tarnishing/wearing-out of the thin brass plating on the tone arm, the sound box, and the dial and knob for the speed control mechanism.

There was some green corrosion at the base of the tone arm. I attempted to clean this up very gently with a very soft brush and cotton swabs but only succeeded in removing the last remnant of the plating. Does it look better or worse for my efforts? Not sure. The green was funkier. (See pic below.)

There is also some corrosion in the U of the pivoting (highly fragile) elbow between the sound box and the arm of the tone arm. I have not attempted anything with this. (See pic below.)

The plating on the body of the sound box is almost completely worn off, probably from hand contact. (See above in thread in discussion of vertically cut play.)

There is nothing really left of any plating on the speed adjustment dial. I know where I can probably get a more legible but worse looking replacement.

Can anything be done about these tarnished/worn-out plating issues?

Should anything be done?

Should the plated areas be wiped periodically with a lightly oiled cloth to inhibit further corrosion?

[Inigo]

My two cents...
Tonearm.
I'd leave the tarnishing as it's now, cleaned but old looking. Any attempt to restore the former golden look would result in an insulting fresh appearance... unless you know any brand or mixture that would look equal to the rest. In the corners, a bit obscuring by age is tolerable, I believe.
In my own equal tonearm, I found the double curved tube (let's call it Z) from the soundbox to the tonearm very sound and robust. What I did find delicate in my example was the end of the tonearm, where the set screw is. Mine was very thin metal, and broken in pieces due to screw pressure, and because of the pressure of the click-clack ball device. You'll see at the opposite position in diameter, that it has a pronounced crevice where a ball pressed by a leaf spring, located inside the Z tube, engages the Z tube in the lateral recording position, as in your photo. At 90 degrees there is another crevice for the click mechanism engaging the Z tube in the vertical recording position, when the Z tube is rotated. So any attempt to disassemble it has to be very delicate. The lead spring inside the Z tube is very strong, and pressing the ball into the crevice it exerts great pressure. But my tonearm must have been corroded in this part, and this lead to the thin metal of the tonearm end to break. When reassembling, one has to force the ball into its hole (the leaf spring rests inside the Z tube, and the ball protrudes by a hole) to be able to put the Z end into the tonearm. The screw simply retains the tube in its place, as its unthreaded point enters into a slot in the Z tube, which fixes it in place, while allowing the 90 degree rotation. Sometimes I've seen this mechanism named a revolver tone arm.
Soundbox.
I see yours very good looking. Personally I find the mixture of black back (metal? Bakelite? I don't know...) and the golden parts very elegant.
This soundbox is very good, same size as the Victrola/HMV no4, and the same pivot balanced system. When restored (new rubbers, etc) it gives an excellent sound. I also changed the rubber washer at the back neck plate, as mine was hard as a rock.
Speed control plate.
This was originally painted in black, with the raised lettering in gold. Seems not difficult to restore with delicacy and care. You can clean and polish it (brass) and then repaint in black (not too shiny). Later you can carefully remove the black from the lettering so you'll see it in brass colour. It will look new, but in this case I prefer functionality (be able to read the numbers).
My machine fascinates me. It plays very well. And especially I find the pathé records to sound very well in this machine.
BTW, the tonearm is installed so it has a very good tracking alignment across the record, in the lateral position.
Another BTW.... I periodically grease all the tonearm joints (the Z tube plug-in connection and the spherical joint at the other end of the tonearm straight section, and also the base joint and pivot) just to make it turn softly and keep airtightness all along.
No doubt the good sound is due to the magnificent soundbox, and the good metal big horn.
I've made plans to build a small but longer folded horn to be placed inside the original one, exactly to fit inside it, so it might improve the sound, being easily installed from the front, and also easily removable. I have only to be brave to design it and make it, in cardboard, light balsa wood, or any other similar material.

[Lah Ca]

4.

Wood screws continued.

I found four Aeolian-Vocalian woodscrews with their countersunk flush mount washers. They were a bit rusty, so the seller kindly gave them a rust remover bath and a bit of a clean-up. Unfortunately, the removal of the rust also removed all the gunmetal bluing.

I have the screws in place in the motor board now. They look a bit different in colour from the ones original to my machine which retain the factory bluing. See attached photo.

Interestingly the machine is much easier and quieter to wind now that the motor board is firmly attached into the cabinet rather than just sitting there loose. The machine always played quietly with the top down, but there was a bit of noise with the top up. This noise is also much quieter now.

I may investigate the cost of a bluing gel or liquid and re-blue the cleaned-up screws or I may swap them with the original four that hold the tone arm/cup deck in the cabinet. These are always in the shadows of the cabinet edges so if I put the cleaned up screws in their place, all the screws will look more similar.

[Lah Ca]

4.

Wood screws continued.

I went and bought a bottle of Birchwood Super Blue gun bluing liquid. It was quite inexpensive.

I re-blued the four screws and washers that had gone through the rust remover bath. I wasn't overly careful as I didn't want the bluing to look too new.

In the first picture below there is a row, a re-blued screw and washer, original ones, and rust-remover treated ones, left to right. This was my first re-bluing attempt. It came out a little lighter than the original. I left the bluing liquid on the second screw a little longer, but it came out too new looking, too pristinely and uniformly black. So I did the remaining two in the same way as the first.

The second picture shows a re-blued screw and washer set in the corner across from an original in the motor board.

[Inigo]

Looks good!

[Lah Ca]

Looks good!

Thanks.

[Lah Ca]

6.

Cabinet Style/Model/Type Identification

I am wondering what Model or Style or Type my Aeolian Vocalian is. The Style and Type tag on the back of my A-V is partially illegible and partially not filled in.

Of interest, my A-V has the original Graduola retainer intact if somewhat bent out of shape. It also has an interesting legal warning from the Aeolian-Vocalian Company glued to the back of the cabinet.

For a while I thought the cabinet of my A-V was unusual, perhaps something specifically for the Canadian market, because the only other model identical to mine that I had seen was one that had been restored by The Gramophone Doctor in Ontario
( https://gramophonedoctor.ca/refurbish/aeolian-vocalion/ ). That one was labelled Scythe-Vocalian under the lid – my A-V possibly had a decal under the lid that may have been in the shape of the S-V decal – it is hard to tell – in certain light conditions, there might be some ghosting of a decal or maybe not. Scythe was an Ontario manufacturing company that may have assembled A-V machines. However, I have since seen very similar, if not identical models, on various auction sites in the US and the UK. So my A-V model is not unique to Canada.

There is a work-tracking tag from Nashville, dated 22-Aug-20, which I found inside my A-V case and which suggests that the case is a Style 510 in Fumed Oak (see above in this thread). A-V used letter designations for their styles in their 1914/15 catalogue, so is the 510 designation a type within a letter style? In comparison to the styles in the 1914/15 catalogue, my A-V has the basic plainness of Styles F and G-1 but with the double lower cabinet doors of Style H but without the decorative woodwork on either side of the horn aperture door of Style H and with the casters (missing from mine) of Style I but with less ornate ferrules on the legs than those of Style I. Built five or six years later, my A-V does not fit into the line up of the 1914/15 catalogue.

Any thoughts or knowledge as to the Model or Style or Type of my A-V?

[Lah Ca]

Aeolian Vocalian 1914/15 Catalogue Styles

[Lah Ca]

7.

Casters

Casters or Teflon furniture glides?

The original casters were probably the very small ones with metal wheels, judging from catalogue illustrations. I imagine they would be very rough on hardwood floors. It would be nice to source a set of originals, but I am not sure I would install them.

⅜" is a common stem size for modern small casters. I have misplaced my micrometer calipers so I can't measure the size of the hole in the legs exactly. A 5/16" drill bit fits in the hole easily. An 11/32" bit does not. There may be a ring clip spring in place and I might not be pushing hard enough to get the 11/32" bit in. I don't know. Maybe the aperture is for a 3/8th" stem?

Does anyone have suggestions for a source I might try for A-V originals? Does anyone know what the original stem size was here?

I have a number of possible sources for unknown brand vintage gramophone casters which would be similar.

Any thoughts on the use of Teflon furniture glides? Not vintage at all, but more elegant than the little squares of cardboard I am currently using to protect the oak flooring from the metal ends of the legs.