The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Phonofreak wrote:One machine I would love to get is the fancy case AO. I have been shy about them because of the pot metal.

The Columbia AO is surely one of the most attractive of all of the Columbia 'A' series Graphophones. I wouldn't be shy about this model, Harvey.

There are indeed SOME Columbia AT's, AO's, (and etc.) found today that have very little evidence of pot metal deterioration. It's a matter of your finding one of those.

The AT's with entire pot metal castings seem to be, thankfully, in the minority relative to the iron ones. I've no idea when they were introduced but avoid them like the plague if you expect to use it for playing!

My Columbia AO functions just fine and I was happy to find it:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjGpSoVKr64[/youtube]

One of the GREAT aspects about Columbia cylinder Graphophones like the AT and AO with the floating weight reproducers is that they generally play the Indestructible cylinders without any skipped groove problem due to the notorious shrinkage issue.

Since the reproducers are not committed to navigate within the confines of a limit loop as with Edison reproducers, the reproducer and its stylus are free to roam a little more and be a bit more forgiving of the cylinder groove!

Doug