The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

kirtley2012 wrote:

Orchorsol wrote:A 13 hour road trip in one day, from the south to the north of England and back, to pick up this HMV Model 31 plus EMG Mk IX horn. Sheer sublime insanity.

It was, though it is the best form of insanity

And it's waiting to return to you Alex!

The longest I've traveled for a Gramophone, was almost 20 years ago. I went from Madrid, in the center of Spain, to a small town, South of Basque country, 40 km away from the cuty I was born, to pick my queen, a HMV 194. But it was a 800 km round trip in total, one day only... A nice story, as I found the machine for sale on the web for only 900€, and I wrote the man just to say him he coulld asbk for much more. The finish had been stripped, but the machine was working and sound. He told me he wouldn't rise the price for it was just a bit more than he had payed for it. But he wante it go to a better home, as he was interested in farm antiques and furniture only. Then my wife (yes... my wife...!) encouraged me to buy it, as I told her it was one of those chances in life. These machines are very scarce in Spain. So there I went! Since then it has been played many many times, almost on a daily basis.

And what about the shortest one? I mention it for the sake of opportunity and for the happy story... It was in 1998 or so... I was at the country for the weekend (50km away from Madrid home) and I spotted an advert in the newspaper for "an old gramophone inserted in a carved wood cabinet" for 330€. Again my wife saw me so curiuos and interested that encouraged me to go and see it. There I went, and it resulted to be in the seller's apartment, 15 min walking away from home, of all places. I found a very beautiful carved lowboy consolette with barley twisted legs, beautiful carved panels and all, a very rare period model of Aeolian Vocalion machine pretending to be an old XVI century spanish console. And it was all original. I bought it and was my first upright machine. The guy helped me carrying it home. He told me it was the gramophone of an old hotel (a well known one) which has been closed since the late thirties. And it has the ellegance to be not less than that. His fiancée was the niece of the former proprietors, and the hotel was going to be overhauled. So they told her (and him) to take what they wanted from the hotel furniture. They took the gramophone, and kept it for some time, but then they decided it to go to a better home. And here it is! Pity that they didn't take the records too... It is a very nice piece and works as a champ.

I'm a complete amateur here. I've only gone about 100 miles each way specifically to pick up a machine, and that was an Edison portable. Of course I've also purchased or picked up machines at Wayne and Danbury as well, but that's not quite the same thing.

I've been gone for a while and have been busy with some bumps in life, but here's the update of my trip for picking up an HMV 163

I've been planning the acquisition for a few months now. The owner moved to Florida, and I've had to wait for a few months for them go come visit North Carolina so I could pick it up. The drive took more than 3 hours in one direction, but we passed through some of NC's coolest mountains, The owners house also had a spectacular view.

When we got there, the they told us that it was in the basement with no other access than up the stairs, and when we saw how steep and narrow it was, we got really worried that we werent going to be able to get it out. The reduce the weight, I took of the lid, the tonarm and the bedplate with all of its components. We then carried the cabinet up the stairs, it was a pretty scary process, having the cabinet resting on my face with the possibility of falling backwards. Luckily it all worked out in the end, and we wrapped the cabinet with old thick bed sheets and put it in the car.

I asked the owners where they got it, and the gentleman told me that he took it home from Scottland when he was in the Navy in the 60's, pretty cool! He even had some traditional Irish/Scottish 78s.

Here are some pictures of our trip

Martin

Does flying 9000+ miles round trip to buy a Meltrope III reproducer count? Ok... that wasn't the only reason for the trip but it was one of my goals.

Retro, seems to me that you're the winner...?

~9086 miles round trip as the crow flies. The route I took, Prague > Amsterdam > Minneapolis MN > Fargo ND > Union Il and back is much longer. I suppose still there are some travellers to/from Japan or China that have me beat.

I've driven from North MS to Nebraska for a 10-50, and once to North Carolina for a school house but the longest trip was to Sweetwater TX for a XVIII but I had to pickup up a cylinder cabinet and record cabinet along the way. With 5 kids and the wife on board. Plus we picked up a Edison Oak VI in Louisiana on the way home. 23 hours to my cousin's house for a few days vacation. Suburban was loaded down!