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Re: Columbia Viva Tonal Electrics
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 3:19 pm
by marcapra
Re: Columbia Viva Tonal Electrics
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 3:51 pm
by PeterF
That receipt is not for dollars, it's for British pounds. In 1928 - 1929, according to online resources, a pound was worth almost five dollars.
Re: Columbia Viva Tonal Electrics
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 4:20 pm
by marcapra
Wow, if the Pound was worth about $5, then the buyer didn't get any discount at all, but paid a healthy premium. At 148 Pounds, that would have been over $700!
Re: Columbia Viva Tonal Electrics
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2015 4:28 pm
by PeterF
Makes some sense, if you figure that such goods must've commanded premium prices as overseas luxury imports.
Re: Columbia Viva Tonal Electrics
Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2015 2:21 am
by Kiwi
So is the square pickup on the New Zealand machine still original?
Re: Columbia Viva Tonal Electrics
Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2015 2:43 am
by marcapra
I do know personally of a few intact machines out there. Usually when I find one it is just the cabinet as you mentioned. I also run across pieces and parts from time to time. One interesting point was the design was the arm and pick up. The horseshoe pick up was mounted in a yoke so that it pivoted. The arm stayed parallel to the motor board the entire time and supported itself. This way there was reduced tracking weight on the record. It was similar in appearance to Capehart's 1930's pick up just without the zero tangent swivel feature. The supporting arm was an interesting 1920's fluid form looking a little whimsical and fluid - right out of cartoon.
Yes, it appears that the square pickup is original. Just look at that yoke style tonearm that allows you to flip just the pickup. To change the needle, all you had to do was lift the pickup, not the whole tonearm like on other phonographs of the time. The thing is, I don't know if the first picture showing a 901 with a conventional tonearm is also original or not. Maybe it was an earlier example?
Re: Columbia Viva Tonal Electrics
Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2015 10:34 am
by Uncle Vanya
That Columbia arm is quite fragile, and is frequently found with pot metal disease. The machine withnthemconventional arm appears to be using an RCA Victor pickup on the straight arm. This combination was found on those Illustrovox machines.
Re: Columbia Viva Tonal Electrics
Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 1:45 pm
by ChuckA
marcapra wrote:I wish I had been there, I would have bought it on the spot. The 980 looks very interesting, even though Baumbach's book just shows a sketch of one. 14" speaker was very large for 1928! They probably had a TRF radio.
These pictures were sent to me years ago when I was looking for a 980, the owner wasn't interested in selling it, but sent Polaroids.
The albums you see are actually part of the cabinet
And this is some publicity photo with an 860, maybe a low budget film. The name attached to it was "Lee Million" never found out if that was the girls name or what.
Chuck
Re: Columbia Viva Tonal Electrics
Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 2:04 pm
by howardpgh
That must be a huge phonograph or a small woman.
Re: Columbia Viva Tonal Electrics
Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 2:25 pm
by ChuckA
howardpgh wrote:That must be a huge phonograph or a small woman.
Now here is huge and small women:
Crosley WLW, 5ft high, 4ft wide, and 475 pounds.
Chuck
