The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Arrgh!! That makes this all the more sad! So sorry the guy destroyed it. Obviously the guy didn't know how to pack well- That should give pause to all the folks bidding on the Vic III-- especially the horn. What a shame.

Brad Abell

Django wrote:

mick_vt wrote:Well. the horn from the V arrived - sorry if you already saw this on FB

I’m glad that wasn’t the whole machine. What a terrible end for that nice original horn. Did the elbow survive?

Fortunately they sent the elbow separately by usps (was accidentally left out of the horn box)

Rich,
As far as your question about the crank, it looks to me like this is poor lighting and

poor camera making this look gold and it is poor nickel

You might email the guy to see if it is nickel

All the best,

David & Lerria.

mick_vt wrote:Well. the horn from the V arrived - sorry if you already saw this on FB

How sad! Horns like that in original condition are getting hard to find. You have my sympathy.

O M G

I had thought about bidding on that horn.

How was it packed and who did he use to ship it? It looks like it was packed into a padded envelope... Hopefully you paid by PayPal and can get them to reverse the transaction... Let the seller deal with collecting from the shipper.

Just another hideous job of shipping by an obvious idiot... This just brings up the issue of making sure you give sellers specific instructions on how to ship not only horns, but machines. If you do this before paying, then the seller has to comply with specific packing methods or you don't pay...

Regarding the crushed horn, maybe I am missing something here. I see a large box with bubble wrap and what appears to be styrofoam. The box appears to have been smashed. Unless the seller had crated the horn, I think that it still would have been badly damaged due to mishandling, and not the fault of the seller. As I said, maybe I am missing something. We don’t necessarily enjoy seeing complete machines parted out, but that doesn’t mean that the seller is an evil person or an idiot. Parting out an extremely rare or unique machine would be a terrible waste. Parting out a common, but still desirable machine is an opportunity for others to complete a machine. If you are looking for a part that is made available, it is a welcome site.

Django wrote:Regarding the crushed horn, maybe I am missing something here. I see a large box with bubble wrap and what appears to be styrofoam. The box appears to have been smashed. Unless the seller had crated the horn, I think that it still would have been badly damaged due to mishandling, and not the fault of the seller. As I said, maybe I am missing something. We don’t necessarily enjoy seeing complete machines parted out, but that doesn’t mean that the seller is an evil person or an idiot. Parting out an extremely rare or unique machine would be a terrible waste. Parting out a common, but still desirable machine is an opportunity for others to complete a machine. If you are looking for a part that is made available, it is a welcome site.

I agree, (more with your first point than with the second however), that anything that crushed a horn that bad was going to crush all the but hardiest of shipping containers as well. Even Raphael, who is highly regarded for excellent packaging(!), suffered the loss of a horn at the hands of a wayward forklift truck driver. We can't foresee every mishandling eventuality.

Not that any of this diminishes the loss, frustration or disappointment of "Mick_vt".

When shipping horns, the boxes have to be strong enough. Just yesterday I shipped a wood Victor horn to CA. It went into a double-wall box (22”x22”x22”) and then that box was placed inside another double-wall box 24”-24”-24” with styrofoam sheets taking up the gap between the boxes. Except for the fork-lift incident, I’ve never had a horn damaged using this method.

Raphael

I recently bought some parts machines for very little money. One of the machines was a re-motored IV. The back bracket, tone arm and reproducer were all good along with most of the bullet brake. The cabinet could be salvaged, but it needs a few small screw holes plugged and along with a larger one that will not show when the turntable is in place. I will do that at some time or sell it as is. The finish may be salvageable, but I really like a nice Oak III, so I bought an orphaned III cabinet and turntable from eBay. I was fortunate enough to have the right motor from an early VV-X in my stash and I bought a bullet brake base from Zwebie. The crank is a good reproduction and the horn is a nicely enhanced Victor original petal horn from eBay. Not exactly as it came from the factory, but except for the crank, all of the parts are Victor. All of the machines leaving the factory were pieced together from parts that came from bins, so I don’t look at this as a less authentic machine than any other. Maybe some would disagree. I agree that it is a shame to part out a good and complete machine, but I question the harm if it allows more machines to become complete again.