The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Jerry,

That horn looks awesome, (a word I seldom use).

Gregg just grained an Opera horn elbow, in mahogany, for me. Really beautiful job. His work is very authentic in the color and in the grain patterns that he uses. Great to have people with these skill sets in the hobby. BTW, heck of a nice guy too!

Just a word of advice to anyone who's thinking of having their horn grained, or even painted, by anyone: knock out the dents first.

Jerry B. wrote:

Jerry- What color is the inside of the neck? Don't know how one could woodgrain that.

George's question brings up a good point. I believe the good grained horns were quickly painted. They give the illusion of wood. Original wood grained horns are grained down the neck about as far as you can see. The quality of wood grained dashboards and trim in autos in the 1940's appears more like exotic woods than an Edison horn. Antique auto clubs could probably point a phono collector towards someone that could replicate the paint on a Cygnet. Jerry B.

I do woodgraining on automotive non- wood surfaces using a process called hydro dipping. It could be done on a horn but it would be tough and it wouldn't look right because it is a film with some thickness and not a paint. The rest of what I do involves actual veneer, which would be interesting to try on a horn, but difficult. Complex curves on a relatively "flat" dash wood underlayment with veneer softener and a "bag" veneer press are difficult, but a horn is a completely different type of difficult as you get down inside the cone. A cygnet neck would be the most difficult of all.

Gregg has a completely different skill set.