The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Thanks Harvey, I will be patient in my search. Hopefully we will both get lucky. Incidentally I have seen quite a few Aretino disc's on ebay lately for some relatively inexpensive prices. Good luck in your search as well!

Our own George Paul did a very informative article in the June, 2015 issue of The Antique Phonograph, appropriately entitled "The Yankee Prince: Six Degrees of Separation - Or - What do an Antique Phonograph, George M. Cohan, Fatty Arbuckle, Donald Crisp, Thomas Kraemer, and James Cagney Have in Common?"

Best,
Fran

A machinist could easily make an adapter to hook up whatever tone arm you want. A Columbia BNW might be a close fit.
I make little adapters out of teflon all the time, just because I usually have it on-hand but HDPE, delrin or even brass would be an easy job... until you find the correct parts.

I wanted to check the double spring motor to see if it was in good condition. I made a homemade cobbled slotted crank and temporary pvc tone arm with an old reproducer and tried a 78 on it. It works great. I wanted to be sure of the condition of the moving parts. I also made a removable metal sleeve that I slipped over the back part of the horn that is cracked that fits snugly over the elbow. That seems to be a good temporary fix. It still needs a new turntable felt.

donniej wrote:A machinist could easily make an adapter to hook up whatever tone arm you want. A Columbia BNW might be a close fit.
I make little adapters out of teflon all the time, just because I usually have it on-hand but HDPE, delrin or even brass would be an easy job... until you find the correct parts.

A good machinist could make the tone arm & reproducer.

That may be true but a good machinist would probably charge way more than an original purchased on Ebay. I have inquired about machinists work and many times it is very expensive. The earlier idea about a temporary adapter used with another tone arm sounds like a good idea. My little pvc tone arm .is totally bogus but it gave me a remote idea of how it will sound when finished.It is in a forum like this that some cool ideas are shared. Thanks

I was rummaging through a drawer of old records and came upon this one from 1908:

https://youtu.be/ZpmeLLGI5pc

It is THE YANKEE PRINCE by Arthur Pryor's Band.

Enjoy!

I concur with OB. Having a machinist replicate the necessary parts would be unwise as it would cost many times more to do that than the complete machine is worth. There was one on ebay recently complete and the seller couldn't even sell it at $6-700 as I recall. The best hope for this machine is to find the missing parts loose somewhere to complete.

There was one on eBay that just sold for $1395. I watched it sell very quickly. I had no idea that they would spark that much interest.

Seems to be a couple cranks currently for sale on Ebay with no bids at under $30. Might be better to pick one up, then to use a homemade crank if you are planing to resell.

The worth of this machine (or any machine) is based on desirability, originality and most of all condition.