The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

This board is addictive, with so many others of similar interests and interesting conversation. It's hard to stay away.....

Okay, so yesterday I came across a complete Victrola cabinet sans turntable, etc. and a few shelves taken out in a local Salvation Army store in a nearby barrio. Though it was sanded/scratched up (literally) and revarnished some time ago, it was still fairly nice looking under the coating of sticky furniture polish and dust. The price seemed pretty good at $38, so I had a hard time leaving it there to endure who knows what kind of horrors might happen with Halloween coming(sparkly red paint, white paint, etc).

The label is gone on the back, but the Model/serial # is VV-XIa, 488205. While I can use it as a cabinet, since it's so complete I'm curious how hard and expensive it might be to find the correct missing parts.

vince

I would think getting the "innards" should be pretty easy. The VV-XI was Victor's biggest seller with more than 800,000 sold, including more than 300,000 of the XI-A subtype your serial number would fall into. Just keep an eye on eBay. George Vollema likely has everything you'd need also, including the missing shelves.

The quandary would be in how much money it is worthwhile putting into it. As XIs are so common, they don't bring much. It looks like somebody had drilled some holes in this one and I am guessing it was used to house stero equipment. Something like that might be the best use. But at $38 you can hardly go wrong.

Clay

Thanks, Clay.

I thought these were fairly common, but didn't know how many...

The cabinet is in really good shape aside from the flat sides being sanded a bit with what looks like 80-grit sandpaper before being refinished. Even the metal casters are still in good shape. The missing shelves could easily be replicated and refinished due to their location.

I'd agree that finding "innards" would be a nice way to go, but only at a decent price.

Wish me luck....there's another complete one for parts on CL about an hour away for $90, don't need another cabinet!

vince

You could find the pieces, but I think that for the combined price you'll pay for everything that is missing you might be able to get a complete machine- I've seen nice examples in the low hundreds.

It looks like the area around the motor board has been cut away. I see that as the main problem in the restoration. The parts should be easy to find. I think I have the motor board if you'd like it. Jerry Blais