The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Many years ago I purchased an off-brand portable that had an adjustable vertical/lateral arm pretty much of the same type as yours, except that it was all steel with no pot metal soundbox. I had in mind some terrific "project" with the V/L tonearm, which of course never really saw the light as all terrific projects...

I believe you should be able to replace the soundbox with another generic unit, however in case nothing would fit drop me a line and I'll retrieve the mentioned tonearm/soundbox assembly and we'll see if it fits. It's still at my parent's, but I know exactly where it is located and would be able to retrieve it in a minute.

Marco: Thank you so much for your kind offer:) I will remember it and return to you if needed. I have started restoration of 3 different gramophones at a time, one HMV 101 portable (with missing parts, so I am now tracing down another 101 for parts), and also working on two different horn gramophones, so I really have thrown myself into the pit now..and hope I will be able to swim.

Take care not to mix parts of the three!!!

This is an old thread! I started it the summer of 2019, when I just had joined the forum, and spent a lot of time on our excellent forum, learning new things every day, and this was also the summer where my hunt for gramophones really started, after a close to 30 year hiatus.

Maybe someone will remember this horn gramophone, that I presented on the forum. It had a unique tone arm, and since the soundbox is destroyed, I have for the time being saved the tone arm and bracket for a rainy day ( Thanks Marco for back then offering help on this tonearm). Since buying the Thorens gramophone last week, that had a too small back bracket installed, I however decided to use it for this horn gramophone, to complete the machine. The only thing missing now is finding an adapter to fit a chosen soundbox to the new tonearm, I am working on that...

There were corner mouldings missing on the machine, and this was the biggest reason why I have stored if for 2 years without completing it. I have searched high and low in my area for wooden beading, but have not had any luck. Two weeks ago I however was able to buy some beading from Hungary, and they arrived in the post some days ago. I have already used this beading for 2 horn gramophones, where the second one also is close to being completed ( I will show it too, since this machine also was covered in a thread during the same summer of 2019).

You can have a look, it may not be original, but this cabinet was close to being chopped up as wood really, if I had not taken pity on it back then, and I am actually happy with the result, even if the back bracket is not original to the machine. It is still a Swiss/German bracket though, so it could be worse.

The plan was to sell it, but when looking at it now...I have actually started to look at the shelf in my sitting room, and may very well decide to chose another of my 5 small Swiss/German horn gramophones to sell, and instead keep this one.

Since I am not going on any travel this summer, I can just as well save some gramophones...and I of course also love it.

PS. The green horn that followed the machine, are saved for another restoration project, that are 50% finished...

It's a nice humble machine, discreet and old. The only thing, imho, that makes it look rare is the red felt on the turntable. It doesn't look original. I bbelieve it would benefit if you find an older piece of dark green or brown felt and substitute it. Just a suggestion...
I have a Columbia 113a which has its original grey velvet turntable cover with the brass grommet in the centre, very elegant, but it was really peeling off, so I substituted it for a dark green velvet one, and not being original, it looks very elegant. Still I keep the original grey velvet cloth with the machine, in case I ever find that color... You could try that, it is very elegant, and the shading effect of the velvet when the turntable is running its spectacular!

I chose a red felt to match the horn. I would have preferred a darker red, but I don't have any darker red felts in storage, and ordering new ones from the UK will easily take 3 weeks to arrive. I planned, up until today, to sell the machine, and I know people like colors here, and since this machine was not a project to return to its original state, I took the liberty of loosening up a bit with this machine:;)
I still understand and appreciate your feedback, Inigo

PS. By chance, I discovered that the red/green painted "Christmas horn gramophone"( with green felt), that I showed the process of restoring last Christmas, now is found when searching for " "Odeon horn gramophone" on Google. I sold it to a man who would put it in an old mansion in Sweden that he was owning, and this seems to be the new home of the machine:
https://www.alamy.com/antique-gramophon ... d0%26pl%3d

Luckily I still have my photos of the machine, so I don't need to pay on this site to see the machine in full on photos without watermarks all over it..and the same applies to you my friends, since the machine is already on our forum

Nice!