The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Very nice machine,,, but what's with all that green felt around the lid and base cabinet? Ehhhhh?

Very nice machine. I wonder why the felt was added to the lid & cabinet??
Perhaps they were trying to cut down on surface noise from diamond discs with the lid closed?

With all the felt I would expect the lid to not be able to close normally without stressing the hinges.

The felt is very thin, thinner than on the turntable, so it puts minimal strain on the hinges ( Though I did have to tighten all the lid screws.) Yes it's there to cut down noise, a very common feature on a lot of British machines. It looks ugly but it works so I thought I'd leave it. It does sound surprisingly good with both types of discs.

Was the felt there already and you replaced it or is it newly added? I've never seen that before on an Edison.

I wonder when it acquired that green felt around the top- it is definitely not original and in my opinion it detracts from the appearance.

If you like it for the sound improvement, I would think that you could remove the lower felt around the cabinet but keep the felt on the lid portion. That way it would look a lot better. Double felt seems a little overkill for me.

I just noticed the reproducer holder under the lid. Did that come with the machine? It does not seem like you would be able to close the lid if there was a reproducer in one of the slots.

The felt was already there when I got the machine. It has been added by someone in the distant past. As I said before it is a common feature on a lot of high end British gramophones. It's not uncommon to see the whole of the inside of the lid felted. When closed it creates an air-tight seal and does significantly reduce noise from the needle. I agree it looks awful.
The reproducer holder is not fixed as there are no original holes for it and I didn't want to make new ones. I found both the holder and the adaptor arm rattling about in the inside of the body of the phonograph. I do not know whether they originally came with the phonograph. I believe the holder if mounted should be reversed.

I checked my machine and it never had any green felt around the edges, nor any glue traces. Since these were export machines, I wonder if the felt was added once they arrived in Britain.
Harvey Kravitz