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I would seriously question the 2500 number. Where did this information originate from? As far as we know little real information on production numbers exists. At least until the publication of Francis James' brilliant book "The EMG Story", we knew very little about either company. I'm not sure about the number under the turntable either. I've never seen that reference before and no EMG machine I've owned had a number under the turntable.

Over the past 5 years interesting machines and soundboxes have appeared and shed a new light on the Seymour/Vespa, Magnaphone, EMG, Expert timeline of development. I would also recommend anyone interested to read copies of The Gramophone from the early 1920's through to the 1940's. Fortunately, a lot of this information is now online.

The so-called 'Expert' committee commentated on the developments brought by the likes of Henry Seymour and Percy Wilson in the refinement of the gramophone in the early to mid '20's.

syncopeter wrote:a well set-up EMG is so loud that it will trip any burglar alarm. It will easily reach 98dB with a medium tone needle and much more without blasting with a loud tone one.

In my experience EMG and Expert machines are not appreciably louder than most other gramophones. Indeed, the modern listener is often surprised at how quiet the larger beasts are, relative to their huge size.

Steve wrote:I would also recommend anyone interested to read copies of The Gramophone from the early 1920's through to the 1940's. Fortunately, a lot of this information is now online.

Indeed...

http://www.gramophone.net/Search/Results/ginn

...though I find Google's search of The Gramophone Magazine archive to be more useful than the one on the site itself.

The so-called 'Expert' committee commentated on the developments brought by the likes of Henry Seymour and Percy Wilson in the refinement of the gramophone in the early to mid '20's.

...and kept on testing them and preaching their superiority for many years, for example...

http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page/Ju ... RAMOPHONES

Most of the contemporary adverts have been scanned into The Gramophone Magazine archive, but it does not seem to be possible to search them.

If you want to listen to the EMG sound on YouTube, the best films bar none can be found on "grahamrankin's channel", but even these are no substitute for experiencing the machines in live performance.

For your first visit to Graham's channel, may I recommend "The Merry Peasant" sung by Malcolm McEachern. The reproduction of his rich bass voice has to be heard to be believed.

epigramophone wrote:If you want to listen to the EMG sound on YouTube, the best films bar none can be found on "grahamrankin's channel", but even these are no substitute for experiencing the machines in live performance.

For your first visit to Graham's channel, may I recommend "The Merry Peasant" sung by Malcolm McEachern. The reproduction of his rich bass voice has to be heard to be believed.

Wow! Thanks for the reference - the bass - and the voice - are amazing. -- And no winding!

Nat

Another lovely youtube EMG channel is Madian44's channel. Both Graham's and Ian's channels record the largest of the EMG gramophones, the XB oversize. The only difference being that Graham has resurrected the EMG arithmetic, geometry etc. and reproduced a number of XB horns to the original specification, albeit using fibreglass for the horn instead of papier mache. Ian's XB is an original.

Here are some links to YouTube EMG-based channels:

http://www.youtube.com/user/grahamrankin
Huge Nimbus horn playing jazz outside http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MA957TfmIs

http://www.youtube.com/user/chunnybh
A gorgeous Al Bowly recording http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCGqHaEEvWg
This electric EMG (with fibre needles) sounds amazing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SZKgJU08i4

http://www.youtube.com/user/madian44
(Ian's channel includes some great danceband records, and gaslight!)

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrSaineolai ... rid&view=0
(the gentleman owns one of Graham's newly re-created EMG horns)


Others with lots of EMG content:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Gypsymojo/videos?view=0
(various machines, a couple of EMG Mark IX videos)

http://www.youtube.com/user/alltheway62 ... &flow=grid

http://www.youtube.com/user/yuichis3010/videos?view=0
(various machines, including EMG. Several from the Gramophone concert of the Gramophone Club of North Kanto, December 9, 2012, at Kiryu Club, Kiryu City, Gunma)

http://www.youtube.com/user/bbb665/videos?view=0

http://www.youtube.com/user/formiggini/videos?view=0
Someone who has "restored" and extended a damaged Wilson horn conversion

You know me and visual aids: once a teacher always a teacher or something.. Here's an ad scanned from my Gramophones " for your divertissement" as they used to say on the Diamond Disc sleeves.