Zonophone

[poodling around]

Interesting and maybe good value ......... ???

£89.10 or best offer ...........

Motorboard screws maybe missing so .......... ???

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/117098378830 ... R-jAhsqhZw

[jamiegramo]

So what has happened here???

I don’t have the HMG book to hand so I’m not sure if this is an original Zonophone base that fell apart at sometime and the sides were put back in the wrong order as the winding handle is now on the wrong side and the trademark should be at the front. It certainly appears to have lost the top moulding underneath the motor board. Alternatively it started life as a hornless model with new panels added to disguise the entry and exit of the internal horn. That being the case it is strange, perhaps coincidence, that its back bracket and horn would be correct for a late Zonophone horn machine.

All the same the late Gramophone Co. back bracket complete with tonearm and plug in elbow are worth the money especially with the, albeit rather poor, MG horn. A Saturn soundbox is a bonus as is a working motor and fittings.

I should buy it, Stevenage is close by.

[poodling around]

So what has happened here???

I don’t have the HMG book to hand so I’m not sure if this is an original Zonophone base that fell apart at sometime and the sides were put back in the wrong order as the winding handle is now on the wrong side and the trademark should be at the front. It certainly appears to have lost the top moulding underneath the motor board. Alternatively it started life as a hornless model with new panels added to disguise the entry and exit of the internal horn. That being the case it is strange, perhaps coincidence, that its back bracket and horn would be correct for a late Zonophone horn machine.

All the same the late Gramophone Co. back bracket complete with tonearm and plug in elbow are worth the money especially with the, albeit rather poor, MG horn. A Saturn soundbox is a bonus as is a working motor and fittings.

I should buy it, Stevenage is close by.

Wow - very interesting indeed.

Thank you for so much great information.

I hope that you do buy it and reveal a few more of it's secrets !

[jamiegramo]

I didn’t buy it, I just have too many projects. I think it was cheap and someone got a good buy. Not surprising it sold quickly.

[Steve]

I didn’t buy it, I just have too many projects. I think it was cheap and someone got a good buy. Not surprising it sold quickly.

It is certainly incredibly cheap for parts, but it's rather typical of what the UK market tends to lap up ie. rubbishy "fixers" rather than more expensively priced but better quality original machines. Now the foreign buyers have vanished, older collectors have passed away and dealers emigrated to warmer climates, our market has almost collapsed with Ebay sellers / auctioneers putting in little effort to sell poor stuff with even lower expectations.