Mystery Machine: Cheap But Kinda Sweet

[Cody K]

This phonograph languished nearby on Craigslist for a few weeks. Seeing the pictures repeatedly, I realized I liked the looks of it. The oak veneer is nicely set, and overall the plain lines combined with the attractive grill were appealing to me. The seller mentioned that there were two crank-holes, the one in current use more raggedy than the other, so I guessed that the motor had been swapped out at some point, and this appears to be the case.

The tone-arm seems very well made, and appears to be nickel-plated brass. It has a nice balance to it, an attractive serpentine form, and a reproducer marked "Thorens Primaphonic" that produces fairly good sound, if on the bright side, through a simple metal horn.

It was clearly an inexpensive machine when new; the cabinet is very light weight, with thin walls, though decently well constructed. It's no prize, but I bought it, along with a VV 2-35 portable, because the price for the two seemed all right, and I found them both kind of charming.

But I'm wondering what the heck this machine actually is? There's an oval area where a decal or label must have been, at the bottom of the inside of the lid. Another decal, almost completely gone, is in the area where the original crank fit. It shows remnants of black, gold, and red. All I can make out is "Ga" "mo" and "ritish m" -- Garrard Motor, British made, maybe?

The motor is a Garrard Junior No.329, possibly from a portable? Unused holes in the motorboard definitely confirm that the current one is a replacement.

The cabinet looks early-twenties to me, while the mechanicals look a little later. The whole thing is very far from a collector's dream, but it seems worth the effort to me to restore the finish to a smooth low lustre,and keep it around for awhile. I especially like the petite size -- at 42", I think it's a little smaller than a VV X.

Any ideas what this is, or whence it came would be much appreciated.

[Player-Tone]

That horn opening is interesting. I have never seen a horn fitted with both doors and a fretwork grill, it is usually one or the other.

[whoopinola]

It looks like the tone arm and reproducer are from a later portable machine...If the needle doesn't come close to the centre spindle , I would resist the temptation to play any records on it...It's a lovely looking machine , and worth the time to fix it ...You may never find out who made it, or what the proper tone arm should look like , but then no one else will know that you put the wrong one on it...

[phononut]

I recognize the tone arm from my Pollock-Welker portable, which then turned into Phonola. Could this be a Phonola?

[Cody K]

Excellent sleuthing, friends! I'd been leaning toward the idea that both the motor and the tone arm came from a portable machine, and possibly the turntable as well, the quality of which seems to match the good craftsmanship of the other parts. At some point this afternoon, I ran across this photo somewhere online, I don't recall where. I'd like to credit it, but a google image search fails to lead me back to its source. Anyway, the tone arm here is close in design to the one on my new mongrel:

Same design, mine's a little beefier, I think.

SimilarToneArm.jpg (18.74 KiB) Viewed 930 times

Phononut, do you happen to have a pic handy of your Pollock-Welker? -- Or is it by some chance the pic I've just posted?

Funny machine. It's had a long life, been taken apart and patched back together. I knew by the info on CL that at least the motor was probably a replacement. It didn't dawn on me 'til after I got it home and started playing with it that the deck hardware was also wrong for the cabinet, looking more like 1930 than 1920. This is just the type of machine that a serious collector would almost certainly scoff at, but I find the design and construction of the cabinet really nice, though of the very cheapest quality -- so it's a sweet orphan machine, and I'm a sucker for unloved phonographs. (I guess they're kinda like puppies.) So I adopted it.

The definite give-away was the supporting rod being brass, or rather a cheap imitation of Victor gold plating. It's stamped "Odeon". I'm now assuming that that's the machine's original brand. Probably one of the pay-by-the-week phonographs that used to be advertised in the back of pulp mags like Hot-Cha Stories in the twenties.

Whoopinola, thanks. The needle does go directly to the spindle, and it has a marvelously smooth, well-balanced glide, which is why I think it must have come from a machine of very good quality. It plays records well, and the reproducer is excellent, really an Orthophonic knock-off. Not a trace of black dust, either. The tone arm does seem to be larger than, for example, the one in the photo posted above.

The turntable is a 12-inch. Wouldn't that be unusual on most portable machines? It also seems to be made of a good quality of steel, and beautifully balanced.

So overall, an odd, charming machine. What Player-Tone pointed out about the unusual combination of doors and grill was something that I hadn't quite registered, but it is something that I think adds to the funny little spirit this phono has.