The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I own nine phonographs in working and presentable condition and eight or nine more that I still need to fix.
Andreas

I've always been a bit embarrassed by the small size of my collection (8 machines), but that is partly due to lack of space. However, I have a nice variety of machines. Vic II Humpback, Columbia BE Leader 2 minute cylinder phono, Edison Fireside 2/4 with cygnet and model O, Victor Ortho 4-40, Edison DD A-200, the loudest Victrola IV I have ever heard, and a "New Columbia" tabletop model (the only one they made after the bankruptcy of 1924). This is the only one of this model I have ever seen.

38 at the moment and I will be downsizing by about 5 when I get a chance to clean them up and overhaul the motors. I've been very busy for the last few years finishing a space in the attic to house them and clear up some space in the house. My collection consists of a cross section of the more common machines due to budget constraints. Several Edison Standards and Homes in various configurations, a Columbia BK, camera phones, suitcase portables, uprights and a console. I like the variety of not only the record formats, cylinder and disc but the varieties of amplification as well like the relecting type of my Arionola. It's been about ten years since purchasing my first machine and I'm not bored yet!

31 right now not counting projects.

Wow, you guys really like your phonographs.


On the other hand, we've got a tie between the first option (1-5) and last (more than 50) which indicates that maybe some are exaggerating a bit.

Some have more phonographs than there are collectors (currently 109).

I have four machines, an open horn gramophone, a concealed horn gramophone, a coin-in-the-slot gramophone and a Bijou Graphophone to play my records. Some day I will add a nice Pathéphone and an early electric phonograph.

Wow....What do you do with over 30, 40, 100+ phonographs? I have six, and that's a few too many!

Garret wrote:Wow....What do you do with over 30, 40, 100+ phonographs? I have six, and that's a few too many!

I dont know about the others, but I use them, or most of them anyway.
I can only think of 7 machines I haven't used in the last 12 months- 2 uprights & 2 table models that are more or less in storage downstairs, and they dont get played because I cant get to them easily.
Then there's my very well used & noisy Edison-Bell "Little Briton" kids machine, my Peter Pan that is missing the soundbox, and a Rexonola "Camp" that is in pieces & missing the tonearm.
The others all get used.
When my partner & I take the dog to the dog park 2 streets away, a different portable accompanies us, I take a different table model or open horn machine to my partners house occasionally & sit on the veranada listening to records while I look over the mariner & islands.
Each of my cabinet models that have record storage space, I've assigned to hold records of a certain label, type or even certain artist. Today I got Barnicle Bill The Sailor No.2 on the Brunswick label, so it got played on my Brunswick Madrid. When I get an early aussie label, it gets played on my Sublime, or a Zonophone disc with 1920-1932 labels get played on the Tonaphone. All my xmas records are stored in my HMV Bungalow, so it gets used for a week or so before xmas, and the albums in my Rexonola 60 hold 4 or so different aussie artists that recorded on the regal zonophone label, so if I want to play them or acquire another disc by them, it's played on that machine.

Yeah, I know it's a weird way to do things, but I've got machines in most of the rooms in the house, so it's nice to be able to play my music when I'm in those rooms, and the record storage system ensures the machine at least get used occasionally rather than sitting there stagnating for years on end.

I just added them up and I was surprised I had 18 keepers. I hadn't counted them in years and the number changes up and down. Some are players and some for display. I remember when I first started collecting I bought everything I could get my hands on. For me it became a monkey on my back. Over time I figured out what I liked an honed my collection. I do have a fair amount of parts and fixer uppers that will eventually be sold when needed to help fund a new purchase. - John

Garret wrote:Wow....What do you do with over 30, 40, 100+ phonographs? I have six, and that's a few too many!

Six? I had that many in my college dormitory!

Of course that was back in the late Miocene.