The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Damfino59 wrote: Fri Apr 01, 2022 5:44 pm Well if it looks like a duck…

http://www.mulhollandpress.com/styled-2 ... index.html

I’m sure a big corporation like RCA wanted their fingers in all price levels. Just outsource your portables when the old Victrola tooling wore out.

Glenn

It does sort of look like a duck but not exactly. The positions of the brake and speed control seem to be reversed from normal ducks.

It looks most like the side-wound 0-11 duck, but the picture of the 0-11 is hard to see.

And then, if it is a duck, it is a Canadian duck, but still details like the reversed controls are odd. Canadian cabinets fixtures seem to have varied from US ones, but motor board details ... I don't know.

I am going to see if I can make arrangements to go see this machine today. It did not work out yesterday.

The seller is asking $225 CDN (about $180 US for it). If it sounds nice and is not obviously junk, I may offer $150 for it (about $120 US).

I would like to own a portable, and even if this not actually an RCA Victor machine, it is at least a great conversation topic.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this thread.

I bought the machine. It looks far more authentic in person than it does in pictures - age appropriate wear and smell.

It would not work properly at first. The drag of the needle on the record would cause the motor to stall. But with repeated attempts of winding it up and letting it run down with the platter off, it finally decided to behave. It had not been used in more than 30 years, so I imagine things were a bit seized up inside. It could probably use a cleaning and re-lubrication.

I misunderstood what the seller had told me on the phone. I thought he said he had bought it in India (hence alarm-bells - how does an allegedly Montreal-made gramophone get to India). But he said that he bought it in the interior. In person, it was easier to understand him. He bought it in a second hand shop while on a road trip somewhere in the interior of BC 30 to 40 years ago.

The seller and his wife were lovely people - major sweethearts. If there has been any jiggery-pokery with with the machine it was done a long time ago before they bought it.

I will start a new thread with better pics later.

Thanks again.