The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

One interesting little aside was noticed today when I happened to measure the length of the damaged horn from back to front (good part of horn bell, obviously !) and found that it was two inches longer than the standard Oversize. The reason for this is presumably due to the ovality which has reduced the flare, but two inches is nevertheless quite significant. It is an interesting thought that this may have had an influence on bass response in spite of the very irregular shape ? It is worth remembering that the equivalent difference (length not diameter) between Xb and Xb Oversize is three inches and bass response is greatly enhanced with the Oversize.

Here is a link to the latest state of play with this instrument.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1dexM-B17k

Sight of the two serial number stamps.

Even with the horn in its current state, the sound is amazingly good.

Clay

Her are a couple of photos of where this gramophone used to live.

Now if I had that beautiful room, there would no longer be crowding of my collection! I expect my entire place would fit into it with room to spare.

Clay

Marvellous Graham, well done! As you say, there is something of a contradiction now with the superbly restored base against the terrors of the beast surmounting it - but my vote is still firmly with the preservation of this historic item as-is.

Many thanks for your support Andy---much appreciated. At least, by keeping the horn safe and dry, no options are closed off and restoration can be carried out at any stage in the future if thought desirable. It is not such a difficult job as it would appear and I have the formers and jigs to do it.

I enjoyed the video. It does look fantastic but I fear leaving it as-is will do more damage. I vote for restoring it's shape and cure the de-lamination, even if it's not re-finished. Graham's the only one that can do that correctly.

Many thanks for your input Chunny---another very interesting option. I can see the good sense in what you say even though the paper does seem stable, the only thing being that if one went that far, which would necessarily involve chamfering back the sections which are just too far gone or missing completely, one might just as well go the whole hog and re-finish the complete horn both in and out. I suppose one could just leave the built up sections showing the required spliced-in new paper which would mean that the sound capabilities and shape would be regained. There would then be the option of not adding finishing papers inside or out so that the history was not compromised. Cosmetically, that may not be too appealing but still interesting !

It is important to note that the horn in its present state is extremely light in weight---probably half as heavy as my other one in good condition. I suppose this demonstrates how much of the original structure has been leached out and is actually missing.