Gotta love these French phonographs

[briankeith]

French Excelsior phonograph currenty listed on EBay - very unusual set up for a cylinder phonograph! Rare cylinder size, great cabinet.

[mrphonograph]

thats a excelsior and not french but swiss

[TinfoilPhono]

Excelsior was a name used by many makers, especially German.

That particular one was mine, and it is definitely French. It's a fairly well-known machine; an identical one appears in one of the Fabrizio/Paul books, another is in the Daniel Marty book. Every one I have seen has had the same celluloid label for a dealer in Libourne, near Bordeaux. The machine played 'Phénix' cylinders, a size which was uniquely French -- larger than standard, smaller than "Inter" Pathé records. (The thin slip-on mandrel shown in the photos was an adapter to allow this to play Inter cylinders as well.

Phénix cylinders are quite rare today. They were all brown wax even though they were made will in the black wax era.

I miss that little machine; I probably shouldn't have sold it.

[mrphonograph]

your right! my bad sorry oh well it happens to the best of us

[dennman6]

How well does this machine actually track the cylinders? It seems a very nice cabinet but a really simplistic design and I can't help wonder what the wear factor was on the cylinders when played on this machine.

[TinfoilPhono]

I can't speak to the wear factor since I didn't play it enough. But tracking -- that was an issue. There's no feedscrew so it has to be perfectly level. And the motor is pretty underpowered to begin with. Pretty much a slightly upscaled Puck -- it works, but the original owners had to put up with a lot of hassle.