The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I knew the owner/builder of this "Edison Phonograph"... It was an older man from (indeed Sidewinder !) The Hague, The Netherlands, who once was an aircraft engineer and rather skilful.
He built the machine with original parts, but also other parts. Why ? I really don't know...
I think after his death his whole collection (mainly old radios) was sold to the Belgian trader / (collector ?)

He once told me he bought the other phonograph (Hispano Suiza) in Madrid during holidays, but... that all the parts were apart, so he rebuild it at home with all the parts.
The Edison Gem... well: it once was mine and I changed it against another phonograph. This Gem was totally ruined and I must say... he did a great job, but the authencity isn't always that...

Ortho_Fan,

Thanks, that's my Franken-phone. I had the motorboard/motor/platter sitting in a box in my shed (impulse eBay buy) & just had to do something with it! It was a fun project & I was able to do it without modifying any of the parts, even the horn turned out to be a nice friction fit into the drainpipe elbow! I still need to build a cabinet for it... one of these days!

Ortho_Fan wrote:I think if I'd want a home-made machine assembled from junked parts, I'd opt for this one:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYCqFCfH6Mc[/youtube]

At least I know it sounds good! I wouldn't pay $2K for it though....

AllWoundUp wrote:Ortho_Fan,

Thanks, that's my Franken-phone. I had the motorboard/motor/platter sitting in a box in my shed (impulse eBay buy) & just had to do something with it! It was a fun project & I was able to do it without modifying any of the parts, even the horn turned out to be a nice friction fit into the drainpipe elbow! I still need to build a cabinet for it... one of these days!

LOL, if your drainpipe had a constantly expanding bore, you'd have made a junior version of the EMG Gramophone! (I can just hear distant rumblings from overseas, echoing an emphatic "hardly!")

Well, this machine will likely play much better than the other one. But if you just look at the bidding history you'll see that is looks kind of faked too. A brand new account u***d with zero feedbacks did place 29 bids in just two days. Although it might be possible, I am not going to believe it.

A few years ago I built up this kluge, using the acoustic parts of a rotten HMV model 32, the reproducer form a VV-2-65, a (broken) Western Electric 5-A papier Mache horn, and
a partial VV-X cabinet (missing motor, motorboard, horn, lid, and one horn door). The new motoeboard was made form the door from an Edison C-250, and the new front panel was the center panel form a Victrola lid.







It was truly a remarkable sounding machine. A record dealer who was visiting loved its sound quality, and offered me a trade that I could not refuse at the time. I actually regret parting with it!

WOW, Uncle Vanya:

The tone chamber looks to be about five feet long, and with the correctly shaped horn, I'm betting it rivaled the larger Orthophonic models, as well as the mid-sized EMG/Ginn gramophones!

OF

Great! I just pray that it doesn't end up selling as a "Rare factory prototype" some day.

estott wrote:Great! I just pray that it doesn't end up selling as a "Rare factory prototype" some day.

No, the inside of the cabinet is CLEARLY marked and dated, and I left the mortise from the lid piano hinge on the cabinet.

Besides, the fellow to whom I traded this machine has promised me first refusal should he ever part with it.

The sound of this machine rivals that of the Credenza, but with a much clearer upper register. Vocal performances are more intelligible.