Santa came late this year, with a HMV 163

[Marco Gilardetti]

Congratulations for this great purchase, and welcome into the club of re-entrant horn gramophones owners!

Personally I wouldn't lift it from the legs. If you have a cart, or could borrow one from a neighbour for few minutes, that would be the best way to move it around.

[nostalgia]

Thanks for the congratulations, Marco, and a membership card for club of the re-entrant owners
Unfortunately I live in a remote rural area, where neighbours are hard to find, and there is a very bumpy ride from my car area to the house, where a cradle would be of no use. No asfalt too, and right now piles of snow and ice everywhere having fallen from the roof.
However, with care and well planning, I received very good help from a friend, and we were able to carry it safely indoors, no bumping into door frames, no slipping on ice etc.
I spent yesterday cleaning it with Swarfega ( not that it was very dirty), applying Howard's Restor-A-Finish ( dark oak) before adding wax from the same manufacturer. The cabinet is shining, and well...I love it already. I have not tested it yet, but it will happen today ! I upload some more photos, so you can have a look, even if it is a bit dark indoors here so the photos really do not make the cabinet full justice.

PS. The key is not lost, it is put into the lock.......now.

[Marco Gilardetti]

Excellent purchase indeed! It's clearly in better shape than my was - but at the same time it's been literally a miracle that I could find one abandoned in south Italy; I can still hardly believe it.

There's absolutely no doubt that you are going to love it *a lot*; and actually as Carlos said to me when my time came, unfortunately it will seriously scale back all your other machines, for which you will find very little use from now on.

While we talk - are you also already a member of the Burmese Colour Needles Appreciation Society? You're going to need a fair stock of them now.

[epigramophone]

Is that a dealer's plaque on the top left hand corner of the motor board? If so, can we see it please?
If it is a UK dealership I may be able to trace it.

[nostalgia]

Burmese color needles, I did not even know such needles existed. I googled it, and came to this site: http://www.burmesecolourneedles.com/prices
I have a needle sharpener already. I actually have received earlier on some fiber needle samples from another kind forum member (phonosandradios, so now it is maybe time to really test these needles!
1. But now I need some help, what needles would you suggest for a HMV 5A soundbox to use on this machine?
2. What period records are you comfortable about playing with this tonearm ? Up mid 40's records, or nothing later than mid 30's?

And Marco, I felt the same thing now concerning my other floor standing machines, I start to look at them, and a HMV 156 is already destined to go, and a huge Odeon cabinet, beautiful, rare and totally restored as it is, is now parked in a friend's living room, for the time being.

Roger, here is the dealer¨s plaque, these heavy machines were actually exported to little Norway almost 100 years ago, and we all know that the only way to do it back then..was by boat across the rough North Sea.

[Marco Gilardetti]

Well, behind that website you'll find fellow Orchorsol, a very nice and knowledgeable chap of this forum, who picked up the whole Burmese Colour Needles business some years ago. These thorn needles, in conjunction with ibota wax (a natural record lubricant), will open to you a completely new world and a superior art of fine-playing shellac records. It requires a bit of time to get confident with them, but then you'll find out that you can no longer live without.

The tonearm of the 163 has an *excellent* tracking error figure all over the record - one of the all times', all brands' best. Also, the outstanding re-entrant horn deliver such an impressive sound pressure that I can hardly figure you ever desire to go over a "half tone needle". These two things put together of course mean that if used with a grain of salt it will be very gentle over your records. If you use thorn "Burmese brand" needles, it will be even more gentle. This is why I feel absolutely confident about playing on it records well into the late '40s.

[Inigo]

I've been just playing some records on my hmv127 tabletop with Meltrope iii soundbox and self made bamboo needles, taken out from Chinese restaurant eating sticks!!! Green, new bamboo, which I took with suspicion... But the bamboo is so straight and hard, that I had to repoint the needle only every six or seven sides! And I've been playing records of the 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s with no problems, except for one very strident by Harry James band... Woody Herman came out crisp and clear, as did Jean Sablon, The Duncan Sisters, The Four King Sisters, Jack Smith The Whispering Baritone, Stephan Grappelli, even later records by Kitty Kallen, Pia Beck Trio, and more I don't remember now... I've revisited the earliest part of my collection, records I bought almost 40 years ago, which have been heavily played on many types of gramophones, good and bad... Yet they sound marvelous, and the cheap bamboo needle marched along with no problems!
(The not very good tracking of this tonearm has been better adjusted by judicious shifting of the soundbox angle, as discussed before in other topic... In this machine and with this setting, 45 degrees gives better tracking results than the 60 degrees originally specified for the Meltrope).

[nostalgia]

Marco and Inigo, thank you for all input on the bamboo/Burmese colour needles. I know you both are very much into soundbox tuning and technology around these matters. I will look into it, when I feel more condident about this, you also mentioned confidence Marco. Myself, I am not yet very confident with soundboxes, since I not yet have serviced one, and I also don't have a cutter for cutting these needles, if I can't use a HMV fiber needle cutter. For the time being, I will probably use fine tone and half tone steel needles, while trying to gain some confidence in this.

[Inigo]

Still I'm moving around the idea of jumping into the BCN round wooden needles one of these days... The reports are so good! I will probably but one of those 'trial sample' packages with several types and sizes, to test them in my usually most played records, to see how they work on my machines and so on... And to be able to set which type suits me most. Meanwhile I'm continuously experimenting with handmade triangular and rounded tip bamboo needles... As I pick bamboo pieces from different sources, all them for free, to discover if there is a commonly available current source of bamboo from which cut needles work well.... The last discovery has been these green bamboo eating sticks from a restaurant nearby....
((We have a rustic colonial imitation table in our living room, whose upper board is made of maybe 40-50 long bamboo strips nailed together in parallel to form the board. This bamboo is incredibly hard... and never tell my wife, but I have the secret dream of converting all this into triangular needles for my gramophones!! I'd have an eternal supply of them ))

[PortAbility]

I recently reunited a re-entrant horn with my (previously empty) HMV 163 cabinet. A slightly complicated exercise, involving around 20 screws and bolts of various sizes! Also the tinplate tends to flex/ distort, so it is wise advice not to take the horn out when transporting a 163. (Also it may be better(?) to transport it on its side, not back, in a vehicle, to avoid damaging the lid etc. And pad the tone arm with an old towel to stop it moving around).

Getting close up to the horn reminded me of a letter in CLPGS For the Record issue 52 about an Exhibition at the Royal Academy in London in 2014. I’ve scanned the photos side by side: Spot the difference!