EMG Special Cambridge Model

[chunnybh]

I had heard of the existence of the Special Cambridge Model but the only reference to it came from a page on the National Museums Scotland’s website. It’s an E.M.G Mk VII in Oak. I contacted the museum and they very kingly sent me pictures of the plaque confirming its existence.

https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-colle ... one/438239

Earlier this year I actually saw one in person. Not a MkVII but a Wilson Horn model with a full lid probably made in 1928, just before the Mk VIII.
Two different models with the same “Special Cambridge Model” plaque.

Sifting through a mountain of paperwork that Francis James gave me, I came across photocopies of letters written by Michal Ginn to a Mr Ogden. They start on May 30th 1928 and the final one is on April 5th 1930. It’s quite a revealing journey through the mind of Michael Ginn.

Basically Mr Ogden earned a 15% commission on selling a Mk VII and 10% on all other EMG models. There’s all sorts of hoo-hah about how the commission was paid and the need of proof that the sale actually came via Mr Ogden or not.
You can download the letters on my site:

https://www.gramophonemuseum.com/emg-gr ... model.html

Charles Kay Ogden famously in 1926, came up with BASIC English. A language consisting of only 850 words.
He knew the “upper crust” in Cambridge and sold many EMG’s on commission to Cambridge dons and the like. Great advertising for Ginn.

Could it be, that EMG’s sold through Mr Ogden were labelled with the Special Cambridge Model plaque?

Herse are a few pictures of the two known Special Cambridge Models. Thanks to Graham Rankin for the pictures of the Wilson Horn model.

[emgcr]

Fascinating insights Chunny and very many thanks for having spent so much time and effort in transcribing Ginn’s nearly impenetrable handwriting ! As you say, these communications offer a very important insight into both Ginn’s thinking and the politics that were going on at the time. Wonderful to see them on your museum website—congratulations.

It seems that linguist and philosopher Ogden was based at Cambridge University which fact alone says a great deal about the inscriptions we find on the two surviving gramophones that we currently know about. In his letter of 14th February 1929, the quoted figures for his three month (only) option/agency for exclusive Mk VII cabinet model sales and Collier patent vulcanite horn production are amazing---£5,000 which is the equivalent of £370,400 today according to Mr Google---a multiple of 74 ! This seems to be a huge sum and one wonders how he thought he might ever make a profit in such a short period of time ? Presumably mention of the “dual purpose” soundbox refers to the use of steel and fibre needles ? One wonders what exactly he was referring to when talking about mass production of tonearms and soundboxes ? He was an agent for Meltrope and employed their system of tonearm attachment on hand-made EMG soundboxes so perhaps this was where vague thoughts of mass production came from ? It never came to pass. Perhaps the special tonearm he talks about is a reference to the imminent swan-neck design ?

It is also interesting to note that Ginn’s method of doing business at that time did not involve expensive lawyers---merely a hand-written note---almost a handshake. Much lamented gentlemanly days indeed but, sadly, probably evidence of Ginn’s lack of business acumen (to his credit in my opinion) which later led to the unhappy loss of the company.

[chunnybh]

The transcribing was a nightmare, I was hoping to teach a transcription program to learn to recognise Ginn's handwriting but it didn't work so I ended up, having started it, to do it all myself. I'm sure there are a few mistakes. I wouldn't want to do it again.

It always amazes me how Frank managed to find all this information. The internet in those days was pretty limited so most of it would have been done through writing letters and actually meeting people. For these letters, he must have tracked down some relative of Ogden's who just happened to have saved these letters. I wonder where they are now?

As everyone know, I am very partial to anything with a Wilson Horn so I am drooling over this machine.

[emgcr]

For these letters, he must have tracked down some relative of Ogden's who just happened to have saved these letters. I wonder where they are now?

I marveled at the same thing---quite amazing that they were kept, survived, found by Frank and eventually made public. Well done Sir !

[emgcr]

This hyper-rare gramophone with doweled lid---a unique discovery to date---has apparently had little use and is in amazingly good condition after about 94 years since production. It was found, carefully preserved, in a house in London at the time when the widow of the owner was selling records. It had been in an attic for many years and the lady first discovered only the horn. On another occasion at a later date she discovered the base unit ! She did not know any more details except that her husband had been a keen gramophone/record collector and had bought it some decades previously---probably in the nineteen-seventies. She was absolutely certain that her husband had never had any connection with Cambridge University so, sadly, that trail has gone cold.

If anyone has any ideas as to the purpose of the internal "braces" in the conduit it would be good to know the thinking. Anti-resonance perhaps ? They do not seem to be particularly necessary from a structural or positional point of view and appear to be soldered at one end only---but the photo may not disclose everything ? Perhaps they are a kind of end thrust limiter for stopping the swivel from going in too deep ? A some stage the mechanism must be dismantled for inspection. The bearing runs very freely indeed. Do your two similar versions have the same detail Chunny ?

Here are some more photos :

[IainW]

As you say Graham my guess also would be the bars are there to prevent the tonearm from accidentally being lifted vertically out of its pivot.

[chunnybh]

Do your two similar versions have the same detail Chunny ?

Unfortunately they are both in storage so I cannot confirm for sure but I remember the same braces on my black one but the oak one has flat brace rings as found on most HMV and Victor horn models. There is a spring loaded pivot pin that centers the tonearm. The two ring braces separate the horn from the tonearm so they can move independently.
A not very clear picture.

[Orchorsol]

Absolutely amazing Chunny, huge thanks and appreciation from me too for deciphering and uploading all this. It certainly adds a lot, not only to the near-certainty (in my mind too) of the meaning of "Special Cambridge Model", but also to the murky EMG schism - unless Ginn's later conciliatory comments to Ogden were a smokescreen - who knows!

The internal braces in the conduit had puzzled me too - but of course it makes sense now, as Chunny has pointed out, that they provide an upper pivot point for the tonearm at their centre.

Incidentally, I am extremely lucky to have Graham's wonderful Wilson Horn/Special Cambridge Model residing here with me at present, where it makes an intensely historic trio along with my Mk VII and very early Mk VIII, spanning the arrival and input of Balfour Davey, and the genesis of the "real" big EMGs. Thank you Graham!

[anchorman]

I've seen a few arms that had a pivot point there, but I'd be surprised if there were a pivot point between those two tiny bars on graham's machine. They seem too small to have a point between them that would be at all useful. My first thought was that it is left over from the plating process, and the pieces were hung in the plating bath from those supports, and someone simply left them there, rather than take the time to cut them back out.