Pathé Adaptor for Victrola

[CDBPDX]

My first reproducer rebuild is a success - got a trashed Pathé adaptor with no needle bar and replaced the dried up gaskets and the badly damaged diaphragm, scrounged a Pathé needle bar from another Pather reproducer, stuck in a Pathé stylus and put it all together and it worked! Here is a video of the first test:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMEgdf1V9m0

This is fun!

Cliff

[pughphonos]

Very nice find and very nice work!

[Phonofreak]

Cliff,
You did a superb job rebuilding that reproducer. When you bought from my friend at the Salem show, I knew you could do it. Great job,
Harvey Kravitz

[Edisone]

I tried using a "plastic" (ebonite?) bodied Pathé box on that gooseneck, but it isn't heavy enough & won't track. Also found that it won't work on my unmarked Victor I (G&T, or whatever it is), probably because of the short tonearm.

[epigramophone]

I also found the Ebonite Pathé reproducer unsatisfactory on a gooseneck tonearm. The smaller the diameter of the disc, the greater the skating problem.

It needs a tonearm with a built in weight adjuster, such as the ones fitted to the Micro-Perophone Chromogram (see my thread under UK Machines), the EMG and the Expert.

[howardpgh]

Cliff-
Seeing this post, and your video just made me want one of these also.
So I won one on eBay. It hasn't come yet. Was it difficult to rebuild?

[OrthoSean]

The later metal bodied ones are much simpler than the earlier ebonite bodied ones are to rebuild. I've rebuilt both types. Remove the screws that hold the gooseneck to the reproducer body, remove the tint screw that holds the needle bar to the mica, loosen up the needle bar pivots, remove the needle bar, chip out the old hardened outer gasket first, remove the mica, do the same with the inner gasket, then reverse the process. Looks like yours has a paper label insert behind the mica. Be careful of that, they like to tear if you aren't careful.

Make sure when you have everything back together that the mica is centered and not touching the body of the reproducer and that the pivots are centered and not too tight. They sound great when done right.

Sean

[OrthoSean]

And P.S. - make sure you seal the mica with beeswax to the needle bar when you reassemble and have everything adjust properly. I think the mica is the same size as a Columbia Grafonola mica on the metal bodied ones too, Ron Sitko carries replacements should you need one. The one I did for Valecnik (ebonite body) fell apart when I took it apart and thankfully I had a Grafonola Mica from Ron in my rebuild kit.

Hope this helps a bit,
Sean