The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

This is the reproducer. I massaged a dent out of the diaphragm but will have to change the gasket tubing and perhaps put an Orthophonic isolator in the back of it fits.

The whole machine is pretty cool. Paillard motor, steel horn, mouse nest and torn up grill cloth, the works. I'm going to get the old thing working in a while and start stripping it then after that..

Getting somewhere.
Still needs a little work.

Looks good... it's going to make a nice outfit when completed...

Long time no work. I moved to Florence instead of home, and in the process somehow the Vokal got along for the ride but I haven't really done much to it.

I was thinking about getting rid of it. The top warped worse and worse. My girlfriend Kelly and I steamed the top of it with an iron and a wet towel and peeled the flaky remnants off the plywood substrate.

It then warped again.

The machine has set in my apartment and been played relatively seldom.

I knocked the lid apart and replaced the rotting plywood top with a piece of Lauan plywood, aka "Philippine mahogany" back in the 1950s, which isn't quite accurate for an English machine of the 1930s, but it's better than a swayback lid.

It will be in line for some peel-stick veneer, later, only on the exterior surface of the top.

Weight testing right now with the official gramophone weight tester.
It does still play. The soundbox was on my VV-XIV for awhile and picked up a buzz so I need to adjust it. An older style open face soundbox would be interesting to swap into this. A lot of the wood screws out of the lid are also missing so I'm looking to get more cabinet hardware, and finish the machine up properly.

VanEpsFan1914 wrote: Tue Jun 20, 2023 8:12 pm Here it is.

Sweet. Looks like a fun project. Enjoy!

Nice helper/assistant, too.

Unless the new owner gets on this bulletin board I likely have no more updates on the Vokal. I gave it to the young fellow clerking at the Habitat thrift shop because he's been skimming off all the prewar 78s for himself which is a good way to start a.l collection but now I know why I can't get any more older records there. He was playing 78s on a cheap turntable but I figured he might use a gramophone and now he has this one.

He also sold me a 1931 Majestic radio for $10 claiming it didn't work but I had it playing in a few minutes after reconnecting one of the grid caps on top of a tube, extending the full antenna out, and (mostly) just waiting for it to warm up which takes forever. (AM broadcasting is pretty lame here so I might add an aux input).

Well that ends that story.
Charles