EXPERT Cadet

[Garret]

Chunny,

If I may ask; what make and model of motor is in your example of the Cadet? Is it a Garrard 20a, or something different?

Garret

[chunnybh]

It's a Collaro D30 and looks like the original motor as there are no extra holes.
It is rather loud and brash with very little bass. Great for early 78's and definitely better sounding than any HMV or Victor external horn machine.
Having such a short acoustic length it must have sounded just awful with the original 12" horn. (Anyone ever seen one of them?). Why was this model ever made?, The Minor is far superior and this model could not have been any cheaper to produce.
I was very dubious about it's authenticity as it really does not look like any other Expert. It has also been messed with as the original lid mechanism has been replaced with two Victor type lid stays. The original hole for the stay has been filled and stained. I did think it was a put together Frankenphone but then I received an image of one in Japan that one is almost exactly the same.
I will, sometime get around to posting more images and a video

[emgcr]

Here are the promised photos of the example in the USA---originally bought from a shop in Boise, Idaho (the land of cowboys and Indians) but now residing on the east coast near New York city. The owner speculates that it may have arrived in the USA with a "War Bride" in the nineteen-forties............

The horn is a Minor with a final diameter of 18 inches which may or may not have been supplied as original. The outlet of the "goose-neck" tonearm is inverted and directly connected to the horn base in a similar fashion to the earlier Mk VI EMG---presumably to save on cost ? The motor has apparently been replaced but no new holes have been drilled in the deck-board. It is not possible (most curious design) to play 12 inch records, although if the spindle was moved by half an inch such could be done. However, the tracking might not be ideal in this event ? Chunny, can yours play 12 inch records ?

The owner describes it as an ideal picnic record player and comments that Al Bowlly is particularly well reproduced. He also comments that the output holds its own when compared with that of his beloved Credenza.

A very rare beast and it would be interesting to know the full history and original specification.

[chunnybh]

Thanks for the pictures Graham. They are some of the same pictures I got from Japan. I also was kindly sent images of this Expert advertising card, the front is a picture of a Cadet with a small 12" horn but the info on the back is for an Ensign.
Here also are some more pictures of mine. The last picture is of one I found on the net, note the original Cadet lid does not allow much room to move the horn or to get inside to change the record. I suspect that is why they later changed the lid to a box lid. Typically Expert, none of them are exactly the same.
Mine does play up to four 12" records on one wind with the huge Collaro D30 motor. I would not compare it to a Credenza.
Mine was missing the original reproducer but I have now fitted it with an Expert 2-spring.
I still cannot see any reason for Mr Ginn to produce this model, unless it was to use up old parts he had, the unmarked tonearm looks like from the early EMG days.

[chunnybh]

Limited to 10 pictures per post so here is the one I found on the net.
Also not the Cadet on the advertising card has a diagonal lid which would not work with a larger horn.

[emgcr]

Fascinating Chunny and many thanks for posting. I have never seen this specification card before (misleading---the photo does not match the description) although I have the same thing for the larger sizes (also misleading for the same reasons). Your example would seem to have been designed as a Cadet to take the very small horn, evidenced by the unusual unthreaded and "push fit" aluminium spigot ? Presumably this has been machined as part of the boss which fixes to the case and is not an add-on or insertion ? The fact that the wall thickness is so thin seems to suggest that post manufacture machining may have been necessary to accommodate the Minor horn ? I wonder if your (screwed on) top plate and lid are original as the hinge is lateral (as opposed to the squint position in the original advertising) and the fitting of the outlet seems a little amateurish ?

I have never seen a 12 inch horn and I think I am right in saying that, to date, we have not found an actual photograph of an original complete Cadet (except advertising material)---only Ensign or converted Cadet ? Interesting to note the effective acoustic length of the Ensign at 4 ft 9 ins was three inches longer than the Cadet equivalent.