The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Steve wrote: Can someone please explain to me how the universal head works as it appears to me that the stylus bar is kinked out at 45 degrees for playing vertically cut records. If the head swivels around to allow lateral play, surely the needle will still be at 45 degrees to the record groove and not sitting dead vertical to it as it should be?

It twists around so the needle is vertical- the diaphragm then leans at a 45 degree angle. It looks very peculiar but does work.

I think condensite would wear a sapphire pretty quickly.

I think that unversal soundbox is very neat...but it sure would look strange in vertical mode

RJ

estott wrote:It twists around so the needle is vertical- the diaphragm then leans at a 45 degree angle. It looks very peculiar but does work.

I see now (said The Blind Man). Many thanks, Eric!

estott wrote:. . . and the veneer missing on the motor board . . .

The veneer is not missing on the motor board. What you see in the photo is a piece of cardboard the owner laid in there with the molded ornament on it which popped off of the front.

Lots to think about. Thanks.

I just noted that the asking price is only $95.I wonder if the soundbox isn't worth half that alone on Ebay?

It looks like a Concert type but is it pot metal or aluminium? It looks like aluminium tarnish to me but photos can be very misleading. If it is aluminium, then the s/box has got to be worth $70 of anyones money?

McIntus wrote:

estott wrote:. . . and the veneer missing on the motor board . . .

The veneer is not missing on the motor board. What you see in the photo is a piece of cardboard the owner laid in there with the molded ornament on it which popped off of the front.

Lots to think about. Thanks.

If the veneer is good and you can free up the tone arm, then the question is really the motor. If you think you can fix that then it might be an OK deal.

It occurs to me, in thinking about replacing the grille, that I don't know what volume control, if any, was on this machine. There is some suggestion by wear marks inside the horn that there may have been some kind of baffle or ball mute, but I can't find any resources on these machines to make an otherwise informed determination. (Do such resources exist?) If there was some kind of volume control integral to the grille, that might be bad. Anybody have an image of a complete one of these machines?

I've never seen any sort of volume control on one of these american Pathé's- if one was used it probably would have been of the slide-in-the-throat kind. Not all makers fitted sound mutes and the user depended on needle strengths.

BTW- I've found a picture of a Pathé X with a grille- scroll down to the bottom of this auction page: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl= ... n%26sa%3DN

It looks as if it's just a simple lozenge grille like the one on the Edison Chalet table model disc machine.

Here’s the larger version of the image that estott found:

I would think that if you had to get a replacement grille made, this would be a pretty easy one to have done—if I had the dimensions of the grille, I could make a vector outline of it relatively quickly.

— MordEth