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Re: "Tonalic" Sonora on Ebay: Credenza clone?

Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 4:55 pm
by richardh
That Kimball has a really nice cabinet...personally I think it looks nicer than the Credenza itself. :o

Is Kimball a well known make in the US? I haven't ever heard of it before...seeing that folded horn through the grill make this a very handsome looking machine...I wonder how it sounds.

RJ 8-)

Re: "Tonalic" Sonora on Ebay: Credenza clone?

Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 6:02 pm
by 1926CredenzaOwner
!

Re: "Tonalic" Sonora on Ebay: Credenza clone?

Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 6:36 pm
by OrthoFan
richardh wrote:That Kimball has a really nice cabinet...personally I think it looks nicer than the Credenza itself. :o

Is Kimball a well known make in the US? I haven't ever heard of it before...seeing that folded horn through the grill make this a very handsome looking machine...I wonder how it sounds.

RJ 8-)

I believe that's the same company that made pianos and organs -- http://www.kimball.com/discoverKimball/ ... imball.htm

As with other musical instrument manufactures, Kimball jumped on the bandwagon and began manufacturing phonographs when the key patents began to expire, starting in the teens -- SEE: http://www.gracyk.com/makers.shtml (They are # 112 on the list.)

I've seen a few Kimball phonographs from the early 1920s -- very conventional looking off-brand Victrola clones -- but never one designed to emulate the Victor Credenza. It does look like some type of folded horn was installed in the cabinet, though probably not designed by Western Electric.

Re: "Tonalic" Sonora on Ebay: Credenza clone?

Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 6:59 pm
by phonophan79
...and the Kimball has an electric motor. I wonder what those two knobs are at the bottom of the picture. Speed adjustment and...?

Re: "Tonalic" Sonora on Ebay: Credenza clone?

Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 7:47 am
by richardh
phonophan79 wrote:...and the Kimball has an electric motor. I wonder what those two knobs are at the bottom of the picture. Speed adjustment and...?

...on / off?

RJ 8-)

Re: "Tonalic" Sonora on Ebay: Credenza clone?

Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 10:31 am
by phonophan79
richardh wrote:
phonophan79 wrote:...and the Kimball has an electric motor. I wonder what those two knobs are at the bottom of the picture. Speed adjustment and...?

...on / off?

RJ 8-)
Hrmm, maybe... any electric motor I've seen the on / off was the lever coming out from the bottom right of the turntable.

Re: "Tonalic" Sonora on Ebay: Credenza clone?

Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 12:35 pm
by OrthoFan
:?:

An electric motor? This looks like a crank handle:
Crank.JPG
Crank.JPG (31.24 KiB) Viewed 2811 times

Re: "Tonalic" Sonora on Ebay: Credenza clone?

Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 4:33 pm
by phonophan79
Ortho_Fan wrote::?:

An electric motor? This looks like a crank handle.
Oops! Indeed. Well, this is what I meant. What are these?

Re: "Tonalic" Sonora on Ebay: Credenza clone?

Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 7:04 pm
by OrthoFan
I'm a bit confused by the knobs too, since, as noted, it does look like it has a crank sticking out of the side. One would probably be for speed control, but I can't see the settings on either to tell what the other might be. (Hooked up to some type of mechanical volume control device?)

This is quite a rare item, and while I personally think $5K, sans records--in TODAY's economy--is a bit much, it's really hard to say, for sure, since I've never seen another come up for sale.

Has anyone been in touch with the seller?

Re: "Tonalic" Sonora on Ebay: Credenza clone?

Posted: Tue May 05, 2009 7:53 pm
by estott
It COULD be a mechanical volume control- that was the gimmick in earlier Kimballs, there were movable panels inside the horn.