1928 Son O Phone

[antiquefreak]

Hello, my husband and I are the proud new owners of a beautiful cabinet style 1928 Son O Phone phonograph and I have some questions.
It works but I have only been able to find 2 records it will play out of my collection of 78's.
Both are old RCA records and play perfectly however when I try any of my other 78 records, the machine slows to a stop a few seconds after I place the needle on the record.
I'm new to phonographs and I have no clue why this is happening.
Any ideas or advice would be much appreciated!
Thanks!

[antiquefreak]

Oops, looks like I have posted this in the wrong section. Sorry!

[New Owner]

Well, first off, congrats on your new purchase! Yours is one of the many off-brand machines made in the late teens/early twenties, mostly by furniture companies looking for a quick buck as the main patents for acoustic phonographs (formerly held by Victor, Columbia, and Edison) expired. Most of these were built for their design, and had generic phonograph parts obtained from other companies dumped in.

I did do a quick check on this, and this was the closest match to "Son-O-Phone":

"215. Sona-Tone -- Sona-Tone Phonograph Inc., 110 West 40th Street, New York City. July 1919."
(warning, massive wall of text alert!)
As for why only two records worked, my guess is that your other records were made in the late '40s/'50s when the material changed from heavy shellac to the modern day vinyl, which is too light for the old acoustic record players. Generally, you should avoid playing 78s made after the mid 1930s on acoustic talking machines due to a change in the shellac composition (pre 1935 78s had an abrasive that wore down the steel needle instead of the record, requiring the needle to be changed every 1-2 plays, and the record would go mostly unharmed), and electrically record 78s tend to be too loud for acoustic machines (with some exceptions, like the Columbia Viva-Tonal and the Victor Orthophonic lines). You can find what year your records were pressed by researching label designs, songs, and some discographies exist for major record labels. I'd also recommend getting the motor restored by the Victrola Repair Service. As you seem to be an antiques lover, I guess you can handle restoring the finish and replacing the turntable felts and de-rusting the metal parts, but the motor is something best left to someone with experience (the springs can take an eye out, and the ancient grease is yet another problem ). Getting the reproducer rebuilt will definitely help with the sound quality (cracked and dried up reproducer gaskets do not sound pleasant). Plus, the Victrola Repair Service is approved by the Better Business Bureau, so you're not dealing with some scam-artist on the internet who does shoddy repairs at best.

http://victor.library.ucsb.edu/
http://www.majesticrecord.com/labels.htm

Also, pictures please!

[antiquefreak]

Wow, I had no idea how specific I had to be when looking for records!
Thank you so much for the advice, I really appreciate it.
The image in my avatar is actually of the machine in question, it's in pretty good condition as far the cabinet goes. It has the original finish on it and only has one nick on the side and a bit of wear on the top but for the most part it looks beautiful.
I will check out the links you provided, thanks again!

[Off_Brand]

The Son-O-Phone, as noted, was one of the off brand models, but it sold primarily in Canada.

It's listed on this site -- http://keithwright.ca/CAPP/Sonophone/Son-o-phone.html -- Main Page -- http://keithwright.ca/CAPP/CAPPage.html

I noticed, as with most post-1925 brands, they gave the phonograph an "phonic" suffix after electrical recording was introduced -- http://keithwright.ca/CAPP/Sonophonic/Sono-phonic.html -- calling it the "Sono-Phonic" With this in mind, I'm wondering if the one you have actually dates from 1928, or if it was an earlier model.

[gramophoneshane]

I just love the line "springs can take an eye out". In over 30 yrs in this game, I've never heard of this actually happening, & I highly doubt anyone else here has either. It always reminds me of the old aligators in the sewers line lol.
Spring removal can cause injuries, but anyone who's mechanically minded can do it themselves if they concerntrate on what they're doing & use some common sense & safety precautions.
Looking at the repair sevice link above, it appears that to have a double spring motor serviced will cost you around $200,, and if you add another $50 for the reproducer to be reconditioned, you're probably paying out more than you'd get for the whole machine if you tried to sell it later.
The redo a motor and reproducer yourself the first time, shouldn't take anymore than 60-90 minutes. An experienced person should be able to do a motor from start to finish in 30 mins.
If you were here in Australia & sent it to me, you'd be charged no more than $75 to have both these things done.
I've never had problems playing any 78 from any era on my machines either, apart from a couple of my small picnic portables, so I dont think you need to play pre 1935 records exclusively either. You're not going to get the best sound from an Elvis 78 on an acoustic phonograph, but most 78s will play satisfactorily.
Perhaps you could ask your husband to watch the spring video linked below & to read the description, and see if he feels it's something he could tackle himself.
Once everything is pulled down, it's a simple matter of cleaning the components & reasembling the motor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbPa-VWAzSY

[antiquefreak]

Great info Shane, thank you!
We are in Canada so it's a bit of a ways to you!
We will take a look at the video and may try to figure this out (with goggles on just in case!).
The spring theory makes sense as the arm seems too heavy with not enough spring to it while playing anything but the two old RCA records that play well on it.
Thanks again, we'll let you all know what we find out.
Becky

[Spun]

Hey, I'm antiquefreak's hubby

While letting the spring fully unwind, I started hearing a thumping, I knew that was bad news. So when I wound it back up, as soon as I started feeling some tension the spring let go and that's that for now!

Anyways, I found a contact of someone only about an hour or so away who will replace the spring, as well as clean everything up for us, so we're going to take a drive down very soon and hopefully have our machine back in good working order in no time.

I've also ordered 500 needles from NY, they should be arriving any day now.

I'm really enjoying this new hobby, and reading everyone's posts. Here are some more pics...

[Spun]

This piece also came with the machine when we bought it. It's apparently a break/stopping mechanism. This is where we came up with the 1928 date because that's the patent date stamped on it, actually it says "U.S Pat. May 28. However, I'm not sure that this part is even compatible with this particular machine...You guys would know. I also think this machine could be earlier than 1928.

[New Owner]

May 28 probably refers to the day it was patented, not the year. I'd say it's closer to 1918, as that's when most off-brands were around. This machine would've been slightly obsolete by 1928, as electrically recorded records and the Orthophonic/Viva-Tonals/etc. had been the standard since '25. I'd look up the patents in a patents guide. It's where I found an estimate for the age of my machine, as the design for the case was patented by a L. Markels.