The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

And here is a 9-25 after installing the corrective crook. The needle is resting on the spindle about 1/16 from the center.

Mark

Credenza serial number 1720: (Note to self: Clean that record!)

Charlie,

Thanks for your information!

It is a bit hard to see in your photo but is the needle point beyond the spindle with the soundbox angle set to 68 degrees?
Does your crook have a second threaded hole for a stop pin located opposite to the normal stop pin hole?

Mark

I have had the opportunity to examine three of the five types of the replacement crooks and discovered something that may help us distinguish the new crooks from the original ones.

Ordinarily there is a single stop pin on the crook to hold it back in tie rest position. There is a threaded hole in the crook near the joint for the pin. On the replacement crooks there are two (2) threaded stop pin holes approximately diametrically opposite. There seems to be no purpose for the second stop pin hole, only the Automatic Victors require a second stop pin and it is for supporting the soundbox when it is lifted up during the change cycle. The change cycle happens when the soundbox or pickup are in the down or playing position. The Automatic Victors were not on the recall list so the existence of the second hole is a mystery. Still, though, it may serve our purpose of indentifying which crook is on our machines.

One hole = old
Two holes = new

With your report please indicate if you crook has one or two stop pin holes in addition to the model and serial number.

Thanks,
Mark

MarkELynch wrote: Sat Jul 26, 2025 10:06 pm Charlie,

Thanks for your information!

It is a bit hard to see in your photo but is the needle point beyond the spindle with the soundbox angle set to 68 degrees?
Does your crook have a second threaded hole for a stop pin located opposite to the normal stop pin hole?

Mark

Maybe the two additional pics will better illustrate. To my eyes, the needle pretty much aligns alongside the spindle. There is no second hole in the crook that I can see.

Well, after a suggestion from forum member Garrett and some further testing the purpose for the second stop pin has become obvious or at least it matches a theory. It is curious that it wasn’t mentioned in the dealer letter.

The second stop pin prevents the crook from rotating down and hitting motorboard if it is dropped off the edge of the record from the playing position. This prevents needle marks on the motorboard but more importantly can prevent damage to the soundbox.

It is interesting that Victor did not come up with this safeguard many years earlier. Presumably a second stop pin would have been supplied with the replacement crooks.

It is probably safe to say that the early crooks have one pin and the recall replacements to fix the tracking error have two.

Has anyone found an 8-60 or 9-40 with the replacement motorboard? Recall that this is the fix for machines with the electrical pickup and the Orthophonic Soundbox since just changing the crook would not have fixed the electrical pickup tracking.

The 9-25 with both pins installed below.

Mark

Here is a 9-40 with the original motor board. This is a very late model and contains the large “moving coil” Orthophonic horn driver.
Has anyone seen an example with the modified motor board?

Mark