Waveola

[epigramophone]

A Garrard motor, twin horns and three soundboxes in this machine.

The pictures are indistinct, but the soundboxes could be a Columbia No.8, a Limit and a Meltrope III.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221359542971? ... 1423.l2649

[Phonofreak]

This reminds me of the movie "Basket Case" Oooooh the horror!!
Harvey Kravitz

[Steve]

Are those Waveola horns in there? Didn't the Gramophone Exchange sell Waveola saxophone type horns for people to "upgrade" their cabinet machines or build their own machines with in the late Twenties?

[epigramophone]

The nearest I have seen to this twin horn arrangement is inside an experimental machine, believed to be HMV, in a private collection in Oxfordshire. A Waveola advertisement is pictured here :

[FloridaClay]

Looks like a job done by a plumber who'd had a few too many.

Clay

[alang]

A picture for posterity...

[Orchorsol]

I too spotted this derelict oddity when it was first listed. It failed to sell and was relisted, and as I was passing nearby I decided to take a look at it – as well as the Waveola interest (many thanks for posting that advertisement, Roger) I was pretty sure I could just see the bottom of a Garrard Super oil bath motor in one of the photos. Sure enough, it was, and I ended up buying the machine along with a load of nice but slightly worn vocal records in a Harrods-sold East Light cabinet.

Just in case anyone notes malpractice against eBay (money grabbers as they are) - since the location was two hours’ drive away, we did the transaction on the spot, and I did suggest and intend squaring the eBay listing honestly, but later found it had been removed.

I’m looking forward to hearing those strange twin horns and deciding what to do! The cabinet is in poor condition, but is at least complete and could be restored.

Here are some quick photos taken when I unloaded it to storage.

[FloridaClay]

Fascinating, Orchorsol. Are you going to restore it?

Clay

[epigramophone]

Interesting to see from your pictures that the twin horns are not identical.

The big "Salon" Decca machines of the late 1920's had almost a twin saxophone horn arrangement which they called the "Audioscopic", and in their advertising Decca made a virtue of the fact that the horns were not identical, claiming that research had shown that this produced a better sound.

I owned one of these big Decca's, but it's Salon soundbox was no match for the HMV 5a and 5b, or the Columbia No.9 and 15, so the merits of the Decca horn were not fully apparent.

[Orchorsol]

Fascinating, Orchorsol. Are you going to restore it?

Clay

Most likely, yes. I need to study it, both to see how well it performs, and to gauge its construction - almost certainly it was to some extent home-made or a modification of an earlier machine. Given those two considerations, it may be expedient e.g. to install a different motor - the Garrard Super is perhaps the finest spring motor ever made, and may be better kept for a worthier purpose such as restoring a needy EMG. But I wouldn't do such a thing lightly or without good reason.

Interesting to see from your pictures that the twin horns are not identical.

Yes, fascinating!