Hi guys!

[ImperialGuardsman]

Welcome! There are a few of us young ones here. I'm 20 and have a small collection. Oh, and thanks again Tinkerbell for posting the link to that site on the Diamond Disc reproducer.

[briankeith]

Welcome Tara. Don't listen to everyone here as we are not all old geezers, hummmmm. Well some of us are I guess... That unmistakeable scent you mentioned was something my daughter thought smelled like old dirty socks! But now even she has a nice working Edison Diamond Disc machine in her apartment she shares with her friend in Manhattan. After all, like father, like daughter. After all,, I had to find some place to store that big old smelly thing!

[phonojim]

Hi Tara and welcome to the board. Great to have you. It's interesting that phono collecting was primarily a guy thing but now I see more women in the hobby... a very good thing. In the late '90s, the only women you saw at phono events were wives who either were dragged there or didn't want to sit alone at home on a Friday night. My wife is one of them, Bless her.
Don't be afraid to ask anything you need to know. You may have several different opinions to choose from, but we'll do our best to help you.
BTW: I have 2 grown daughters and I wish even one of them had any interest at all in my collection.

Jim
Proud Phonogeezer

[Tinkerbell]

Hi Tara and welcome to the board. Great to have you. It's interesting that phono collecting was primarily a guy thing but now I see more women in the hobby... a very good thing. In the late '90s, the only women you saw at phono events were wives who either were dragged there or didn't want to sit alone at home on a Friday night. My wife is one of them, Bless her.
Don't be afraid to ask anything you need to know. You may have several different opinions to choose from, but we'll do our best to help you.
BTW: I have 2 grown daughters and I wish even one of them had any interest at all in my collection.

Jim
Proud Phonogeezer

Give it time, Jim... Had it not been for my father, I would likely have never developed this interest.

[Tara M]

Thanks, everyone. Sorry about the eccentric older gentleman comment, in retrospect it was not a good choice of words! I grew up in a family owned car shop and hung out with my dad and his buddies restoring old cars, so I was kind of referring to the bond that develops from absorbing information like a sponge from seasoned enthusiasts. I figured in an old town like St. Louis, with such a rich history of turn of the century architecture and charm there would be some remnants of a phonograph world.

I'm super excited about Union, Il and the show. Thanks!

Bill, thank you for the invite, I look forward to finding some time off here soon. It's nice to know you're in St. Louis!

BTW: I have 2 grown daughters and I wish even one of them had any interest at all in my collection.

Jim
Proud Phonogeezer

Jim, I'm sure they think it's interesting in their own way, right?


And, Tinkerbell, it's nice to meet a lady enthusiast too! What kind of machines do you gravitate towards?

[alang]

Welcome Tara. It's a great hobby and a great forum to learn and talk about it. I am also impressed that you've been digging right into motor and spring removal. Doing these things yourself saves a lot of money, which can be spent on more phonographs and records.
Enjoy!
Andreas

[SquireWill]

My name is Tara, and I've silently been creeping this forum for a couple weeks before I got the courage to join. I have been really entralled by all of the great information on here! It's addicting.

I've been the owner of a VV-80 for about three months, and now I'm in the process of rehabilitating the motor. I've always wanted a phonograph and found the old gal on craigslist. Immediately as soon as I smelled that unmistakeable scent waft out from opening the lid, I knew this was one of those things you start, and you lose yourself in. That's going to be a good thing, right? Haha.

So far, I've found the Compleat Talking Machine book to be kind of so-so. It is a great all around book (covering many makes and models), but very sparse on the actual getting down to details. I have a Look for the Dog book on order. I took one poster's advice and watched Chilldude2007's videos on YouTube... they have been invaluable in my process. What an awesome guy for putting those up. I was hoping to find some quirky old guy in my area to be a mentor or something, but no luck. My family isn't very interested in my ramblings of mica diaphragms and my persistant requests to come over and have a listening party. So, when my toddler goes to sleep I sneak into the garage and tinker on my motor, or look up info on here from you guys. I might sound slightly manic, but this is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me... and I'm so proud after getting myself psyched up- I got my two springs out of my Victor motor.

I was also reading about Cacti needles. I am a transplant from Phoenix, so hopefully I can get someone to send me some needles. I bought a Peter Grey sharpener and started an aquarium filled with different species of barrel cacti, as kind of a needle farm. Unfortunately they will take years to be ready for harvest!

Sorry this is a lot. I'm excited to be here!

Tara

I think it's great that younger people have decided these machines are worth preserving and hobby worthy. Especially a female. I guess it's just a breath of fresh air , considering the normal lady of a young age is very pop culture oriented, So doing something like you are/have is out of the norm. Anyways..have fun.

[Wolfe]

Thanks, everyone. Sorry about the eccentric older gentleman comment, in retrospect it was not a good choice of words! I grew up in a family owned car shop and hung out with my dad and his buddies restoring old cars, so I was kind of referring to the bond that develops from absorbing information like a sponge from seasoned enthusiasts. I figured in an old town like St. Louis, with such a rich history of turn of the century architecture and charm there would be some remnants of a phonograph world.

I'm super excited about Union, Il and the show. Thanks!

This is spam.

[Orchorsol]

Welcome, Tara. Great to see younger people on here and it's a lovely story about your upbringing and where your interest came from - comparable to mine, I grew up enthralled and enchanted with the amazing "vintage" world that was my grandparents' house (I still have their HMV 109 gramophone and a lot of their collection of 78s - plus loads more now, of course!). I still feel young, too, although middle aged now!

There's a small but seemingly growing bunch of younger people collecting over here in the UK too, which is nice to see.

[need4art]

We don't have cacti here in Phoenix-we got lots of cactus though. Seems like alot of phono collectors are in your new part of the world rather than here. In fact one of our members moved from NY to Arizona was here for a few months and than back to NY.
I will be out gathering some needles shortly and when I do I will PM you and send them to you. By the way I'm one of those old giesserers hwo cat'n sellp either.
Abe