That magnificent Sonoraphone..........

[MicaMonster]

This machine was a flash in the pan on this forum last month. And Bob Baumbach's article in The Antique Phonograph has really got me hot and bothered to start restoring this beast! A craigslist find. The seller took extra care in packing, and now it will get the restoration it deserves. Notice it is made out of what looks to be mahogany (but could be spruce...), rounded corners, volume control, automatic brake, needle drawer (under decal), and those spindles covering the light wood horn just get my blood pumped (for those of you that say "I love you" to your partner, while thinking about how great your Amberola would look with a fresh wiping of furniture polish, you can understand where I'm coming from).

The motor, for crying out loud, is a DOUBLE-SPRING made by Paillard. Has an adaptive tone arm with 2 tubes for converting the soundbox between the Pathé and Victor positions. The soundbox is original to the unit; a Paillard Maestrophone "Maestoso." Later Sonora machines utilize the same soundbox, but instead of printing "Maestoso" on the soundbox label, the word "Sonora" was used. The automatic brake is simplicity itself. When the tone arm tracks to the extreme left, it pushes the brake release upward and then, "CLICK" the brake activates.

Her are photos of the machine, its spring-cord driven feed screw (which is UNDER the motorboard!), and of its swivel joint in the aluminium tone arm. The swivel allows the reproducer a few degrees of Up/Down, and Left/Right movement (too much in fact to have avoided the Victor patent infringement). But now, after nearly 100 years of sitting, the pot metal joint has expanded and seized. I'll see about oiling it and pressing it out. I suspect the pot metal will crush and disintegrate, behooving me to have new parts made in brass.

[FloridaClay]

(for those of you that say "I love you" to your partner, while thinking about how great your Amberola would look with a fresh wiping of furniture polish, you can understand where I'm coming from).

As frightening as it is, yes I do understand.

Clay

[gramophoneshane]

Thanks heaps Wyatt for giving us a look under the motor board. I've been wondering what was down there for the last couple months, and it's much simpler than I'd imagined. Even though the feedscrew/tone arm mechanism appears to run off a narrow pulley, the TT spindle must be longer than normal, and the motor must be mounted a little further than normal from the motor board, to leave enough room for the pulley and spring cord to operate. That second mechanism must put an extra strain on the motor, even when running at optimum performance, so it'll be interesting to see if you can still get 2 record sides from the 2 springs, or if it only plays one 12" side before loosing enough grunt to complete a second record.
It's a very intersting machine indeed.

I still wonder if these are one of the machines that Paillard threatened legal action over in 1909, because Sonora was selling Paillard machines as their own without Paillards authority.
The whole cabinet & horn design looks Paillard to me, and a Swiss manufacturer probably wouldn't have been using American mahogany for the cabinet, which might explain your indecision on the timber species used. Paillard never seemed to have a problem with putting another (authorised) companies name behind the mica either, so it seems a little odd to me that Sonora isn't on the soundbox but the Maestoso label remains.
Nothing about this machine screams American to me, including the use of pot metal.
Paillard began making parts for British "Apollo" machines (Apollophones) from around 1907, & I've seen pot metal tonearms & soundboxes with the Apollo name moulded into them, and Paillards pot metal wasn't very stable either.
The wide triangular needle bar is also a very early Maestoso feature too. From what I've been able to find, by 1910 the same basic triangular needle bar was being used, but it had been turned 90 degrees, as in the picture below. The 2 "adapting joints" (tubes) were certainly available in both early Paillard & Apollo catalogues. Even the way the feed screw mechanism is put together reminds me of how some Paillard cylinder machines were done, & I wouldn't be surprised if the rod diametres matched their phonographs too.
As far as I can see, the only thing Sonora about this machine is the decal.

Next time you've got your camera out, is there any chance you could post a picture of the brass tag behind the tonearm?

[Andersun]

Very nice machine! (and jewelers screwdrivers) Please post YouTube of it playing when all finished!

[JohnM]

It's awesome that even in this obscure model, that there at least two major variations of the mechanism! I love that about this hobby! One never sees it all.

[syncopeter]

It looks very un-American to me. It has some definite Pathé overtones

[phonogfp]

These are interesting machines - - I'd like to find one someday. Thanks for posting!

George P.

[brianu]

that's the one from craigslist, isn't it? I just saw that yesterday and was trying to contact the seller. ugh.

[MicaMonster]

Rebuilt the motor, pressed the pot metal out of the tone arm, refitted it, and .............................



[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRAZVTBfpHE[/youtube]

[gramophoneshane]

Well it appears I was wrong about this being a Sonora badged Paillard machine, but I'm guessing some of you already knew that.
It does seem odd that they settled on using such a European cabinet design.
Did the earlier version with the mesh grille have the feed screw mechanism above the motor board as shown in the patents drawings, or was it redesigned by the time these machines went into production?

http://www.google.com/patents?id=elFuAA ... CD8Q6AEwBA