The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I can't believe anyone thought this was a Crapophone!

Funny thing actually how the REAL bargains usually go to those people who don't yet know their heads from their a**es!

Sorry....couldn't resist that one!

So now you have it, do you finally realise what a STEAL you have there? $150 for this?!!!!! In Europe, my friend, you'd be paying 500 - 600 Euros for that, especially with that brass horn. The cabinet is fantastic.

Was this a CL find? If so, how come US CL appears to monopolize all the knuckle-headed vendors? Surely anywhere else, any vendor would be trying to max. their gain out of this?

Steve wrote:I can't believe anyone thought this was a Crapophone!

Funny thing actually how the REAL bargains usually go to those people who don't yet know their heads from their a**es!

Sorry....couldn't resist that one!

So now you have it, do you finally realise what a STEAL you have there? $150 for this?!!!!! In Europe, my friend, you'd be paying 500 - 600 Euros for that, especially with that brass horn. The cabinet is fantastic.

Was this a CL find? If so, how come US CL appears to monopolize all the knuckle-headed vendors? Surely anywhere else, any vendor would be trying to max. their gain out of this?

Well, 9 times out of 10 when an external brass horn machine shows up for cheap it tends to be a crapophone. From the single (poor) picture on CL it was not easy to tell for myself considering
my limited exposure to European machines if it was the real deal. If it was one of the phony "Victor" machines I can spot that a mile away since I am very familiar with the Victor line at this point.

I agree it was a great deal and I am very grateful to have found it. I scour CL daily and several
times a day so when items like this crop up I am all over it. In fact I thought I "blew it" at first
since for one day I forgot to search with the term "gramophone". Fortuanatly my competitors forgot
to use that term as well and I lucked out.

Many times here I think the machines are inherited and the owners just want to sell it quick
without going through the hoops of researching it and waiting for top dollar. Its hard to say
for sure what is going on in their minds. I know that if I was not interested in phonographs in any capacity, I might think this was a "piece of junk" and want to offload it fast as well. Hard to say.

Got the screws out today. I ended up using a soldering iron
to heat the screws one by one. This seemed to do the trick. There
is some rattling in the video. I am pretty sure its coming from
the horn, as there are some splits/gaps at a couple seams. Other
than that it sounds great.


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EmyXaW5j_4[/youtube]

Is that turntable 12"? It kind of looks an odd size, but it could be an optical illusion lol.
It looks about 10.5" or 11", sort of like the early odd sized Odeon/Fonotopia discs. Hmm, I wonder....

The soundbox looks fab btw.

gramophoneshane wrote:Is that turntable 12"? It kind of looks an odd size, but it could be an optical illusion lol.
It looks about 10.5" or 11", sort of like the early odd sized Odeon/Fonotopia discs. Hmm, I wonder....

The soundbox looks fab btw.

It must be smaller than 12 inch since that is a 10 in. record and almost covers it.
I will measure it when I am home tomorrow.

Thanks, I was so glad to get the screws out without destroying anything. I like the Thorens soundbox, it
seems like a simple and good looking design.

'73 again, you have done good on CL.sounds great. I do have one question.Is the front piece on the tone arm removable??. I ask because some are and then you could put another part on that makes the reproducer sit at the head of the arm to play vertical records.

If it's like the machine I have the joint isn't removable. These tone arms are often made of stamped steel soldered together.

gramophone78 wrote:'73 again, you have done good on CL.sounds great. I do have one question.Is the front piece on the tone arm removable??. I ask because some are and then you could put another part on that makes the reproducer sit at the head of the arm to play vertical records.

Thanks 78, I was pretty lucky again on this one.

The collar appears to be soldered in and non-movable as Estott mentioned.

gramophoneshane wrote:Is that turntable 12"? It kind of looks an odd size, but it could be an optical illusion lol.
It looks about 10.5" or 11", sort of like the early odd sized Odeon/Fonotopia discs. Hmm, I wonder....

The soundbox looks fab btw.

10.5 is about right, maybe a hair over. I think my felt hangs over a bit though.