Victrola Credenza and Federal Recorder

[De Soto Frank]

I'm wondering if Greg Bogantz will weigh-in on this machine ?


Since the "expensive bits" ( motor, taper-tube & soundbox, etc. ) are all missing, and the top board needs to be replaced to turn this back into a true Credenza, it might be worth investigating the condition of the exsiting rig, and seeing what it would take to make it work as-it.

Could you post some pictures with the back panel removed ?

Also post the model and serial #'s from the Victor plate ?


I'm curious if this was fitted with an electric horn-driver onto the exponential horn, or what ?


It might not be "worth much" as-is, but might be more feasible to resurrect what's there than trying for a full Victor resto ?

[leadlike]

I have this same recorder in a suitcase. I never found a schematic for it, but construction is very cheap and simple (series string), so I just made up my own wiring diagram on a piece of paper. My cutter head was magnetic, not crystal; so you may be lucky there. My tube chassis was really puny, something like 4 tubes lined up behind the faceplate, so I would imagine that you could possibly just drop that into a Credenza cabinet without doing any real cutting. Well, except on the motorboard that is.

As far as value??? As stated, a lot was lost when it was modified like this. I find it interesting that a top of the line machine was somewhat carefully fitted with a very cheap tube phono chassis. I saw a Credenza cabinet with no horn or motorboard sell for $100 about a year ago, so I would say it was worth at least that. I haven't checked lately, but Ebay was a hot place to sell record cutters for awhile. Even low quality ones sold for over $100.

[gregbogantz]

I think you guys have sussed this thing out pretty well already. Yes, the recorder works look to be the typical General Industries type that was common around 1940. I think Webster-Chicago (later, Webcor) was also making similar units, and this playback tonearm looks more like a Webster. And the cutter is most likely a crystal one, so it likely won't work now. There are places that rebuild these cutters, but they don't do it cheaply and you won't wind up with a very capable set if you choose to restore it. These cutter systems were pretty primitive and didn't produce very good results. These home recorder sets enjoyed a brief popularity during the mid 1930s to WWII period as there was little else available for sound recording. Wire recorders were also available, but they were unreliable with birds' nests consisting of fouled recording wire pretty frustrating and commonplace.

When tape recording debuted after the war, the home recording frenzy really took off as that technology was much more reliable and produced much better results. Early tape recorders are a whole separate group of collectibles as lots of them were made from many different manufacturers. You can still get into the ground floor of this collectible as the machines are still selling for next to nothing. But the big problem today is finding blank recording tape. I think there may be only one or two manufacturers left anywhere in the world. And it's getting pretty pricey. And you can't find the magnetic tape heads today either. Even the professional studio users of analog tape machines now have these problems.

[tablerock]

Thanks for all the help and reply's, I will post some pictures of the inside of the cabinet when i get a chance to take them.
I think it is in my best interest to find someone who wants the parts or wants to take on a project.
I will say someone went to a lot of work to make it look like it all belonged together.