New member seeking advice on Artinola Phonograph

[Cory thompson]

Hello:

I am a new member and new to the world of antique phonographs. I recently purchased an Artinola machine model #185 for $45. I took it apart and repaired the springs and now it's running! (this education alone was worth the money to me)

Now on to my question...The reproducer is a Tolman #2. I haven't been able to find any info on the internet about it. It is in need of a needle. Does it take a metal needle? Or, a wooden one? Can I replace the reproducer with another brand?

Any advice is greatlty appreciated...Thank-You

[phonogal]

Welcome Cory. It would help if you would post a picture of your phonograph and reproducer. There were many smaller companies that produced their own brand of phonographs. It should take a regular steel needle (these should only be used to play 1 side of record and then changed). Needles are inexpensive and are available in packs of a hundred or more. You will find several discussions about needles on this forum. Just do a search. One of the problems with a machine made by one of the smaller companies can be finding parts. If it is the phonograph that is pictured below. It looks like it is one of the orthophonic types made in the late 20's-30's. If the reproducer is intact, it probably can use a rebuild.

[Cory thompson]

Yes...that looks like mine. I have added some photos of the reproducer. I need to know which needles it takes and what types of phonographs it plays. Thank-you

[EdiBrunsVic]

Yes, there are some good sources in the "links" section of the forum and these can help you locate someone who can do a rebuild on the soundbox. It looks like a nice machine.

[Cory thompson]

So is it an orthophonic reproducer?
Does it use metal needles?
There was a needle tin that came with the machine that says "medium phonograph needles" Is this what I should look for?

apologize for sounding pushy...i'm just really excited to hear the machine play. I'm not looking for top quality sound or anything, just some old fashioned music coming out of an old fashioned player!

[EdiBrunsVic]

Hello again...

Get some steel needles as suggested by a previous post. Use them one time for each record. My suggestion is to use records made before 1930. Orthophonic records are good choices. Find the Victor label with the "VE" on them.

[Cory thompson]

Thanks so much for the advice...just purchased a record and some needles on EBAY. Can't wait to try them out.

[David Spanovich]

So is it an orthophonic reproducer?
Does it use metal needles?
There was a needle tin that came with the machine that says "medium phonograph needles" Is this what I should look for?

apologize for sounding pushy...i'm just really excited to hear the machine play. I'm not looking for top quality sound or anything, just some old fashioned music coming out of an old fashioned player!

Hi Cory:

That's not an Orthophonic reproducer (aka "sound box"), but was designed to emulate the performance of one. The "Orthophonic" reproducer was manufactured only by the Victor Talking Machine Company, and used on their Orthophonic Victrola models--produced between 1925 and circa 1930. (The word "Orthophonic" actually appears on the back of the sound box.) Orthophonic Victrolas were all-acoustic (non-electrically amplified) phonographs that were especially designed to play electrically recorded records, also introduced in 1925. There's quite a bit online about this, for instance:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Ort ... c_Victrola

http://www.recording-history.org/HTML/p ... ology6.php

http://www.stokowski.org/Development_of ... ording.htm

http://www.victor-victrola.com/

There are also hundreds of YouTube videos that show the Orthophonic Victrola Credenza model in action. You can find them by simply typing Victrola in the search box on the Youtube site.

Your Artinola would have been made during the late 1920s, or possibly into the early 1930s, and as with the Orthophonic Victrola and similar phonographs produced by other manufacturers, would have been designed to play electrically recorded records with greater fidelity than older, (pre-1925) models--more bass, more mid-range, etc.

As for the needles, the metal ones are normally referred to as "steel needles" and they came in a variety of thicknesses. The most popular were Loud, Medium and Soft. These are still available, newly produced, today. The type of needle you use depends on the type of sound quality you want to hear. Personally, I almost always use Medium tone for my Orthophonic Victrola, which gives it a nice, mellow tone.

Other needle types include fiber (normally triangular shaped bamboo) which can be re-sharpened and used several times, as well as thorn or cactus, and tungsten tipped. While new production bamboo and thorn needles are still made--in limited quantities--the multi-play tungsten styli (Tungs-Tone) are only available as new-old-stock, and are quite expensive.

You can find a number of sellers online by googling Victrola Needles OR Gramophone Needles.

HTH,
DS

[Phototone]

To answer you simply, Your machine takes the standard steel needles common to all lateral players of the first 3 decades of the 20th century. They are readily available and generally come in "Loud", "Medium" and "Soft" tone. They are used once, and discarded.