The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Thanks for the pictures, AZ. I've never seen a 118 before in as much detail. I never knew, for instance, that the bandings do not follow through to the underside of the cabinet as they do on its cousin, the 114. I wonder if the 114's in general got pretty knocked about on the underneath so they dropped the idea of decorating the underneath in favour of those two heavy duty runner blocks? They are obviously original as you can see remnants of the original finish around those areas.

Very interesting and far more practical than my 114 which I'm almost too scared to set down on any surface for fear of scuffing the lacquer!

Hi AZ:

I've thought about this from time to time since it was originally posted last year, and wondered if you ever got around to restoring the HMV 118.

OF

imagine carrying that around - with a #32 motor - and a couple of albums of records! I thought my Columbia was heavy!

Very interesting machine.

Ortho_Fan wrote:Hi AZ:

I've thought about this from time to time since it was originally posted last year, and wondered if you ever got around to restoring the HMV 118.

OF

No, I must confess that it is still sitting in the corner of my dining room.

When I bought it last year, I had planned to work on it when the cooler whether arrived in the Fall. We'll I got busy with a new job, and before I knew it, Fall, Winter and Spring came and went, and now the hot weather has returned. I plan to tackle it when the cooler weather returns in the Fall.

I did, however, get a new handle and a replacement latch for the case. Thanks for asking. I guarantee that it will look much better than it does now when I'm done with it.

And by the way, remember your recent post showing some dufus playing a record with the tonearm on the wrong side of the turntable so the needle can eat the records? That's exactly how the seller demonstrated the 118 to me. Then he offered to sell me some records (1940s big band stuff - not interested) for $20 a piece. I said no thanks.