The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I assume this wouldn't be amber shellac? So I guess I should test clear shellac and lacquer?
I have pieces of veneer that came off the bottom of the cabinet I am planning on testing stains/finishes on before I do the cabinet

Good idea to test the stain and also test the amber shellac, clear shellac and lacquer over your test stains... they will all look different over whatever stain you choose. Just my opinion, as always...

I use amber shellac exclusively.
I don't think I've ever come across any antique furniture or gramophones before that used clear shellac.
Anything I've come across with an original clear coat was done using lacquer.
If I have come across clear shellac it was probably just used as a compatible final 1-2 coats over amber shellac to seal decals.

Lacquer was also colour tinted and used to obtain the shaded effect that was popular on later production accoustic and electric machines, radios etc.
I think lacquer started being used by the larger companies around 1925, so generally speaking, most orthophonic type machines will use lacquer, while earlier machine probably used shellac, or some type of varnish that isn't produced today.
Unfortunately a lot of people tend to use lacquer on machines and other furniture that it's not appropriate for because its conceived as easy to use, but personally I think shellac is just as easy, and it always looks right.
If you had an original machine with a shellac finish, and placed it on a record cabinet with a lacquer finish, even if you match the overall colour of both exactly, up close you will easily see they are not actually the same and don't look quite right together, and as time wears on the difference becomes more apparent because both finishes will age differently.

gramophoneshane wrote:...Unfortunately a lot of people tend to use lacquer on machines and other furniture that it's not appropriate for because its conceived as easy to use, but personally I think shellac is just as easy, and it always looks right. ...

Uh, I refinished my Edison A-150 and C-250 with lacquer--three coats and five coats, each hand rubbed, respectively, nothing easy about it--because I like the look of lacquer. (But then, I chose more or less flamboyant grille cloths, too; I don't believe in applying a bland, dull one just to imitate what the manufacturer chose as the cheapest thing to stick on machines for sale, and if somebody down the line doesn't approve, well, it's not as if they can't be easily removed.)

Note: my machines' original grille cloths were long gone, and the finish of each machine was totaled by botched attempts at restoration before I got it. Had the originals been present and salvageable, I'd have preserved them--as I did with my Edisonic, at no small expense and expenditure of elbow grease. Three of the Victor boxes shown on the A-150's shelf have since yielded to Edison originals; finishing out the set is one of my ongoing projects. Funny that a full set of those boxes is worth more than the machine.

I will test a variety of finishes and stain. in the end I will pick whichever combo gives me the closest matching color to the inside of the lid.