The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

FloridaClay wrote:The Q mandrel tags come off and get lost and are sometimes removed by less than scrupulous sellers because they know they can get maybe $50 for it.

Clay

Very true! I did wonder if it was lost or removed.

fran604g,

I don't believe that anyone has yet suggested that the mandrel with two holes may be from a Busy Bee machine. Although the two mandrels appear identical, the tapers are slightly different. An Edison or Columbia, etc. cylinder record will go only part way onto the Busy Bee mandrel. Short of comparing the measurements of the two mandrels, a cylinder record can serve as a quick method of determining what you have.

19Orient10 wrote:fran604g,

I don't believe that anyone has yet suggested that the mandrel with two holes may be from a Busy Bee machine. Although the two mandrels appear identical, the tapers are slightly different. An Edison or Columbia, etc. cylinder record will go only part way onto the Busy Bee mandrel. Short of comparing the measurements of the two mandrels, a cylinder record can serve as a quick method of determining what you have.

Correct. The mandrel diameter on a "Busy Bee" is substantially larger than the standard Q mandrel so it will only accept "Busy Bee" records. That isn't the case here, the tag is missing either because it fell off or was removed at some point, not entirely unheard of.

As was pointed out by George P. with Yamaphones very early Q (sn 311649), it seems a certainty that all Q's, even the earliest, had mandrel tags.

The question I presented was whether or not mine originally should have had one. The evidence suggests that it would have been produced and sold with one originally.

I have noticed that there seems to be different versions of the mandrel (and certainly other parts), and I'm wondering how many variations there may have been, and when those different parts may have been changed during the many years of production.

Fun stuff; mechanical anthropology.

Maybe I'll need to concentrate on buying as many Q's as I can find and dedicate my remaining years to the pursuit of discovering the "mandrel truth"...Call me Mr. Q...

Just kidding!

Fran

I shall follow you with this project I would like to learn about the mandrels of the Q too!