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Take a close look at the tone arm. What makes it different than most tone arms found on an "L" door Victrola? This is your "official" Victrola quiz of the day. I'm waiting for answers.... Jerry

Jerry B. wrote:Take a close look at the tone arm. What makes it different than most tone arms found on an "L" door Victrola? This is your "official" Victrola quiz of the day. I'm waiting for answers.... Jerry

I for one have never seen that type of decoration on the bracket. Very nice!

George P.

Jerry B. wrote:Take a close look at the tone arm. What makes it different than most tone arms found on an "L" door Victrola? This is your "official" Victrola quiz of the day. I'm waiting for answers.... Jerry

The finish has an unusual sparkle to it as if the base metal was something other than brass perhaps? The taper tube and the pivot are all one piece which is different from what I've seen on similar tone arms. Also notice that the pin in the pivot is secured with a set screw in the tone arm rather than the back bracket.

My Victrola XII had that bracket decoration and perhaps not-so-coincidentally, it was also a machine with a Canadian dealer decal -- from Calgary.

It almost looks like the taper arm has been spray-painted gold in the photos on the oak L-door.

Most Victor tone arms were made by forcing water through a tube to expand the tube to the proper shape. This tone arm is a cast tone arm. If you'll notice, the pivot point was not added on to the arm, it was cast as part of the arm. The arm on this Victrola was cast and probably twice as heavy as a normal arm of the same size. The inside of the arm is a rough cast and must have robbed some of the sound. Jerry Blais

gramophone 78:

What a beautiful group of machines ! Congratulations!

(I think you can be forgiven for mistaking the Fireside for a Standard... they are quite similar !)

Would you mind sharing the serial# of the oak L-door ?

OrthoSean:

I have a 1909 L-door ( C restamp over B ), in red mahogany, from Wanamaker in Philadelphia, with original receipt.

De Soto Frank wrote:gramophone 78:

What a beautiful group of machines ! Congratulations!

(I think you can be forgiven for mistaking the Fireside for a Standard... they are quite similar !)

Would you mind sharing the serial# of the oak L-door ?

OrthoSean:

I have a 1909 L-door ( C restamp over B ), in red mahogany, from Wanamaker in Philadelphia, with original receipt.

The L-door 16 serial number is 25704C.

A very nice set of talking machines, congrats!!!!

Jerry B. wrote:Most Victor tone arms were made by forcing water through a tube to expand the tube to the proper shape. This tone arm is a cast tone arm. If you'll notice, the pivot point was not added on to the arm, it was cast as part of the arm. The arm on this Victrola was cast and probably twice as heavy as a normal arm of the same size. The inside of the arm is a rough cast and must have robbed some of the sound. Jerry Blais

Ah, that explains the grainy finish. Must have been a bit of work prepping these for plating. I'm guessing that they had to cast
some of these when the injection system was down?

In my travels I have noticed four machines with cast tone arms. One was a Vic II, a Victrola XII purchased in Victoria, a second style VTLA purchased near Vancouver, BC, and the XVI in this thread, which I believe is Canadian. I don't know the origin of the Vic II but the other three all came from Canada. Maybe Canadian Victors are more likely to have cast tone arms for some reason. Can someone give us an overview of production in the US and Canada? Thanks, Jerry