I’m new to this

[PeanutTheRabbit]

Oooooo thank you! One of my favorite discs is from the 20’s. Song of india, and Cho Cho San. I highly recommend giving it a listen! ^^
https://youtu.be/AMvhlIBjg0o

[VanEpsFan1914]

Oooooo thank you! One of my favorite discs is from the 20’s. Song of india, and Cho Cho San. I highly recommend giving it a listen! ^^
https://youtu.be/AMvhlIBjg0o

That's a good one! I've listened to that one many a time-- I have some different renditions of "Song of India" as well, one being a classical take from the 1940s, and one being the Tommy Dorsey version which is decidedly not classical music. Rimsky-Korsakov's music seemed to be very popular in the early 20th century.

That particular record of yours (Song of India/Cho-Cho-San) is a classic for more than one reason. A small Victor phonograph and a copy of this record helped to inspire William Saroyan to become a writer. (I believe by the $10 price tag that his new phonograph was a Victor Junior horn gramophone.) Here in the link is the story of the first encounter of the Saroyans with records and music.

https://tea.texas.gov/sites/default/fil ... 11-ela.pdf

[edisonplayer]

I remember reading the story in a book when I went to high school.edisonplayer

[mick_vt]

Oh yes. What ^^ Jerry B said.

Your Victrola is old--even if it is a 1920s machine it still was a design invented in 1912. So this ancient "Gilded Age" technology just doesn't handle the soft vinyl of late 1940s-'50s discs. You need regular shellac 78s.

I don't know how much you figured out yet about records but in 1925, Victor started making "Orthophonic Records" that sound just about like modern stuff. They used a microphone. The early "acoustic" records were made through a metal horn with no electronics whatsoever. Anyway, they came up with some different Victrolas to play them on, and Orthophonic Victrolas are sought after today. Columbia Graphophone jumped on it with the Viva-Tonal machines, and Brunswick came up with the Panatrope, and everybody started switching away from acoustic records and by 1930 the old acoustic 78 was pretty much gone.

Then they started changing the formula for records, later, and by the 1940s they started using a softer composition because the old windup Victrolas were going away too. (Not quickly--but some.) They now had electric phonographs which had been developing since the late '20s. They came out with them and by the late 1930s, most record players were electric except for some portables that were still cranked, and a few regular crank phonographs used in rural districts before Rural Electrification came along with FDR's New Deal. (These old things are a complete history lesson in themselves!)

And anyway, for your Victrola VV-IV, you'll want to get some original 1900s, 1910s and '20s records, maybe some from the '30s and early '40s. But if it's soft vinyl, it won't play well. I put you a few pics up to give an idea but I got to run now so maybe more later.

That Victor label is generally a good indicator of an acoustic recording, but watch out, if it has VE in an ellipse imprinted on the record itself , it's actually electronically recorded, and like the later scroll label records is really for Orthophonic machines

[PeanutTheRabbit]

I’m desperate for more batwing records. If anyone here wants to get rid of a lot, please lemme know.

[gramophone-georg]

Oh yes. What ^^ Jerry B said.

Your Victrola is old--even if it is a 1920s machine it still was a design invented in 1912. So this ancient "Gilded Age" technology just doesn't handle the soft vinyl of late 1940s-'50s discs. You need regular shellac 78s.

I don't know how much you figured out yet about records but in 1925, Victor started making "Orthophonic Records" that sound just about like modern stuff. They used a microphone. The early "acoustic" records were made through a metal horn with no electronics whatsoever. Anyway, they came up with some different Victrolas to play them on, and Orthophonic Victrolas are sought after today. Columbia Graphophone jumped on it with the Viva-Tonal machines, and Brunswick came up with the Panatrope, and everybody started switching away from acoustic records and by 1930 the old acoustic 78 was pretty much gone.

Then they started changing the formula for records, later, and by the 1940s they started using a softer composition because the old windup Victrolas were going away too. (Not quickly--but some.) They now had electric phonographs which had been developing since the late '20s. They came out with them and by the late 1930s, most record players were electric except for some portables that were still cranked, and a few regular crank phonographs used in rural districts before Rural Electrification came along with FDR's New Deal. (These old things are a complete history lesson in themselves!)

And anyway, for your Victrola VV-IV, you'll want to get some original 1900s, 1910s and '20s records, maybe some from the '30s and early '40s. But if it's soft vinyl, it won't play well. I put you a few pics up to give an idea but I got to run now so maybe more later.

That Victor label is generally a good indicator of an acoustic recording, but watch out, if it has VE in an ellipse imprinted on the record itself , it's actually electronically recorded, and like the later scroll label records is really for Orthophonic machines

Yes, but the dirty little secret is that earlier Victrolas play these electrical records quite well with a Victrola or HMV No. 4 sound box, which is a straight swap with an Exhibition or Victrola No. 2.

[PeanutTheRabbit]

My rebuilt exhibition reproducer arrived today...and omg...it sounds amazing

[mick_vt]

Yes, but the dirty little secret is that earlier Victrolas play these electrical records quite well with a Victrola or HMV No. 4 sound box, which is a straight swap with an Exhibition or Victrola No. 2.

I know that dirty secret, I have a modified orthophonic reproducer specifically for this

[mick_vt]

My rebuilt exhibition reproducer arrived today...and omg...it sounds amazing

Makes quite a difference huh? I remember the first time I heard a rebuilt unit, having previously only used a clapped out original... night and day!

[PeanutTheRabbit]

So my phonograph developed a loud squeaking sound. I sent it to George Vollema. Is he any good?