The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

While living/working in Islamabad, Pakistan in the early 70's, a friend living in New Delhi was making a car trip to Kabul asked if we could put them up for several days when they passed through Islamabad. As a token of their appreciation they gave me a horned machine (crapophone) which they bought off a street vendor in Delhi. He had a monkey with a tin cup, the machine had a strap so the operator could hang it around his neck, play a record, while the monkey went through the small crowd collecting rupees. I still have the machine and that is what got me started. Machines were still being used in the villages, parts where everywhere and I collected about 5 machines.
When we entertained the guests were always fascinated by this machine and it was not long the word got out and the price for a machine in Islamabad went through the roof. Well we spent another decade overseas and returned in 1980. My little collection rose to over 40 machines Yes it is an addiction..

That's one Franken-phone I'd keep too!

It looks like a late HMV model--detailed copy.

Model 32

Retrograde wrote:Model 32

VanEpsFan1914 wrote:That's one Franken-phone I'd keep too!

It looks like a late HMV model--detailed copy.

Not a Frankenphone and not a Model 32. It is a Model 31a which was built for the Indian market and never catalogued in the UK.

What distinguishes it from the Model 32 is the later and fatter tonearm. The soundbox would have been a No.5a, but I cannot clearly see what soundbox the machine pictured has.

Thanks for the info everybody. If I recall it has a Girrard No.1 motor and the reproducer has no markings on the back only a musical note symbol in the front center. Thinking this is a crappophone. It sounds good. Bill K

The soundbox is a UK Columbia No.24, originally fitted to their Model 205 and 211 portables. The same soundbox but with the HMV logo was the No.23.

The HMV Model 31a had the No.32 double spring motor. If your machine has a Garrard, either it is an HMV which has been re-motored or it is a copy of the HMV design. If so it is a very good copy which had me fooled and appears to be of some age, so rather better than a Crapophone. I would certainly give it a place in my collection.

epigramophone wrote:The soundbox is a UK Columbia No.24, originally fitted to their Model 205 and 211 portables. The same soundbox but with the HMV logo was the No.23.

The HMV Model 31a had the No.32 double spring motor. If your machine has a Garrard, either it is an HMV which has been re-motored or it is a copy of the HMV design. If so it is a very good copy which had me fooled and appears to be of some age, so rather better than a Crapophone. I would certainly give it a place in my collection.

Thanks again I feel so guilty accusing this machine of being a crappophone all these years.. The old girl will always have a place in my collection. Have a good weekend.

Bill K

It is probably a 31A, though there appear to be rope-twist or similar elements in the top and bottom mouldings, but this may be a trick of the photograph. Assuming they are, then I'd say it is a 31A (1935-9) which has been re-motored. There is a slight smudge in the photo which may be where the original winder hole has been filled. In any case, there would be redundant holes under the turntable, if the motor has been changed. (A Garrard No 1 would be out of an earlier machine; it was long obsolete by 1935). The 31 had a 10-inch turntable, and the 31A probably did also, though I am uncertain about this. The present turntable looks like a 12-inch, which no doubt came with the Garrard motor.

It was 1982 and I was thirty and someone bought me an Edison Bell floor model phonograph. They must have known me better then I did because I was hooked and started buying records at a nearby antique store. From Peddles Pumpers and Rolls in Elmhurst Illinois I had bought a second machine that could play vertical records. They did not tell me that. It took me a few years to understand why the sound box swiveled. Then went to Union my first year or two as a collector and from Larry Donely I bought my Amberola VIII, Edison Standard and a box of two and four minute wax cylinders. I think I have owned now near 100 machines and have thousands of records but always looking for more. Ha ha Neil Van Steemburg