Rare Apollo 111RT sax horn model

[Steve]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/364316972957 ... media=COPY

This has recently appeared on Ebay and although it needs some motor attention, it is a steal at the asking price from which they will accept a lower offer! This is a rare model with the pioneering saxophone horn. If I didn't already have the Super 4 and Super 9 it would be mine already.

[poodling around]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/364316972957 ... media=COPY

This has recently appeared on Ebay and although it needs some motor attention, it is a steal at the asking price from which they will accept a lower offer! This is a rare model with the pioneering saxophone horn. If I didn't already have the Super 4 and Super 9 it would be mine already.

It does look great.

If it didn't have an external, passing resemblance to my floor standing Gilbert I would certainly be tempted. (I know the horn is very special though etc).

I wonder which motor it is likely to have ?

Also, with the god Apollo on you side things would look very good from the point of view of 'archery, music and dance, truth, prophecy, healing diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, and more' - what more could you want possibly want ????????????

[Steve]

The motor will probably be a Paillard GGR type as used in some EMG's no less! Yes, for probably £35 you can get an early prototype for the later HMV range with a motor good enough for an EMG. But its in the wrong country. Why do I say that? Well, its a machine that should be more than a footnote in gramophone history, its a cabinet with "alligatored" finish (crazing to us Brits) and its rare. If it was an American machine being sold in the States it'd likely be worth thousands and there would be a stampede of buyers wanting to re-amalgamate the finish to get it looking new again (to be honest, not my favoured option).

Over here the market for standard black 101s and 102s is immeasurably stronger. One seller on Ebay only sells HMV portables in average condition every week without fail. I'm surprised he doesn't die of boredom.

But that's the market here. Edison phonographs, common portables and fixer-upper HMV horn machines when they turn up. Interest in a machine like this is very limited if not non-existant.

[Phono48]

With respect, are we sure this machine has a saxophone horn? As there are record shelves in the bottom part, there doesn't appear to be room for such a horn.
Barry

[Steve]

With respect, are we sure this machine has a saxophone horn? As there are record shelves in the bottom part, there doesn't appear to be room for such a horn.
Barry

It is definitely a saxophone horn, albeit hard to see in those poorly lit pictures. The "saxophone" drops down behind those record shelves. If you save the photo to your machine and then edit it to brighten it substantially you should be able to make out some of the pipework.

My Super 4 looks very similar. At first glance it doesn't reveal itself to have a saxophone horn but shine a torch through the record shelves and voila, there it is.

[Phono48]

Thanks for the information Steve, I've never seen an Apollo machine, so now I know what to look out for!

Barry

[Steve]

You're very welcome, Barry. I can't vouch for the quality of the horn in the Ebay machine but my Super 4 has a cast round aluminium conduit of almost perfect exponential taper. The bell is a separate section of the same material which widens substantially to form the circular opening within a square aperture. The part you see behind the top pair of doors is painted to resemble mahogany woodgrain to match the mahogany cabinet.

I'll try to dig the machine out and take some photos.

[JeffR1]

If that is mahogany, that has to be the homeliest mahogany I've ever seen, it looks like pine, birch or fir that's been peeled from round stock that looks like plywood.

I've never seen any type of mahogany that looks like that, the grain just isn't tight enough.

[Steve]

If that is mahogany, that has to be the homeliest mahogany I've ever seen, it looks like pine, birch or fir that's been peeled from round stock that looks like plywood.

I've never seen any type of mahogany that looks like that, the grain just isn't tight enough.

Yes, I know exactly what you mean. That's my take on it. I think it might be birch which they stained dark red with a heavily pigmented shellac / varnish. When they catalogue something as "mahogany" I think it refers more to the colour and finish than an actual accurate description of the timber used in the carcass.