Your First Phonograph - Share Your Story

[recordo]

My first machine was an Australian built Rexonola (Thorens motor). My father bought it for me in 1979 when I was a boy. I still have it but rarely use it because there are better machines at home now. Here’s a photo taken 45 years apart.

[Phonoboy]

Awesome! Great pictures.

[AmberolaAndy]

More photos of my first phono the “Northome” I mentioned earlier. I think this was probably a OEM machine that had the Northome brand slapped on it. I don’t have a soundbox on it but I might make a video of it playing with the Electrola No 4 soundbox on it for YouTube!

[m_nakamura]

I can fix her.

[Orchorsol]

I really thought I'd posted in this thread, but apparently not!

I was obsessed with records, record players and gramophones as a toddler and have been ever since. Whenever we visited other families' houses, they were the first thing I wanted to know about and seek out - I can remember two horned gramophones, one in a beautiful house full of antiques and the other a near-wreck in a derelict farm building we children used to play records on. I was buying 78s from the local junk shop from the age of 5 or 6. When I was 7 someone gave me an electrical gramophone which still worked - although sparks were sometimes visible inside the cabinet! I think it may have been a Volmar, and had a Garrard turntable with the autochange spindle missing.

Just a week ago with both my brothers visiting and looking through old slides of my father's I found this long lost photo.

I also posted about my grandparent's HMV 111 which I still have and treasure: viewtopic.php?t=11979 Sadly the photos are now missing. I'll try and remember to upload new ones.

[Lucius1958]

I really thought I'd posted in this thread, but apparently not!

I was obsessed with records, record players and gramophones as a toddler and have been ever since. Whenever we visited other families' houses, they were the first thing I wanted to know about and seek out - I can remember two horned gramophones, one in a beautiful house full of antiques and the other a near-wreck in a derelict farm building we children used to play records on. I was buying 78s from the local junk shop from the age of 5 or 6. When I was 7 someone gave me an electrical gramophone which still worked - although sparks were sometimes visible inside the cabinet! I think it may have been a Volmar, and had a Garrard turntable with the autochange spindle missing.

Just a week ago with both my brothers visiting and looking through old slides of my father's I found this long lost photo.

I also posted about my grandparent's HMV 111 which I still have and treasure: viewtopic.php?t=11979 Sadly the photos are now missing. I'll try and remember to upload new ones.

Quite an achievement, if you were able to play records on a derelict farm building... I'd have used the gramophone.

[Dischoard]

Old post.

My first phonograph was from my grandmother, but it belong to her grandmother (my great-great grandmother). I was 11 years old when I first saw it back in 2021, still living in Osaka. My great-grandmother (aged 99 at the time), told me all about listening to it as a child in the early-1930's. I asked if her if I could listen to it, she told me "It's broken. No bother." Fast-forward to around 2023/24, my great-grandmother and all her belongings were moved to the US for EOL care. I have a friend who was in my 9th grade Biology class, always talking about phonographs and records. Eventually I asked him to take a look at our broken J1-95, he replaced a couple things in the motor and it came back to life. I had never seen my great-grandmother so happy, so I cherish phonographs as a hobby greatly.

You have quite the knack for reviving old posts! I love it though, there's no reason for some of these to pass into oblivion...

[m_nakamura]

Old post.

My first phonograph was from my grandmother, but it belong to her grandmother (my great-great grandmother). I was 11 years old when I first saw it back in 2021, still living in Osaka. My great-grandmother (aged 99 at the time), told me all about listening to it as a child in the early-1930's. I asked if her if I could listen to it, she told me "It's broken. No bother." Fast-forward to around 2023/24, my great-grandmother and all her belongings were moved to the US for EOL care. I have a friend who was in my 9th grade Biology class, always talking about phonographs and records. Eventually I asked him to take a look at our broken J1-95, he replaced a couple things in the motor and it came back to life. I had never seen my great-grandmother so happy, so I cherish phonographs as a hobby greatly.

You have quite the knack for reviving old posts! I love it though, there's no reason for some of these to pass into oblivion...

AHHAHA. I spend a lot of downtime in class reading this forum.

[shopdoc]

Technically not MINE, but the first old phonograph I remember cranking and playing records on was an upright 78 player. I was about 6. I know dad had better ones, but he showed us kids how to use that one. I remember playing Sixteen Tons, Thumbelina, and Side By Side