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I bought a huge lot of 78s (500+) off eBay that I will be driving up to Georgia to pick up Friday. The seller threw in a VV 4-5 Colony -- well, the picked over bones of one -- he'd picked up at an estate sale and never got around to restoring. I know from the pictures that it needs a bunch of parts, including both front doors with hinges and knobs and likely a complete motor and motor board assembly (with everything including the turntable, brake assembly, etc.), tone arm, and reproducer, as it looks like all the mechanicals from something else have just been stuck in the case. (Not sure off of what yet.)

The carcass may well wind up set by the curb or at Good Will because it needs so much to rebuild it. Question being if what is left looks good and has not been mucked up so that it might be worth trying to salvage when I see it "up close and personal," does anybody have one they would part out? I checked with George V. and for once he does not have the parts.

Clay

Can you show some pictures of the carcass and a complete one?

Sure, well, indirectly.

eBay's new system seems to block the ability to copy photos--which is good news in terms of helping block people setting up sales of something they don't really have, but not so good for copying pics of something you bought. Here is the link.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251166845494?ss ... 1439.l2649

Here is a complete one.

http://www.oldcrank.com/collection/colony/colony.html

Clay

Nice machine!, the only parts i have that are smilar are the knobs and possibly hinges which probably wouldnt be much help to you, i have a spare motor however i can almost guarantee its not similar to this one

By the way, I am guessing that the motor board assembly and the tone arm and reproducer would be identical to those on a VV 4-3 Consolette. Right? Well except that due to their short production run all Colonies seemed to have had just a 10" turntable.

Clay

FloridaClay wrote:By the way, I am guessing that the motor board assembly and the tone arm and reproducer would be identical to those on a VV 4-3 Consolette. Right? Well except that due to their short production run all Colonies seemed to have had just a 10" turntable. Clay

My recollection is that the motor is similar to the portable with the single spring motor with spring shaft parallel to the turntable spindle. A very cheap motor for
such a large cabinet. Not certain what motor is in the 4-3.

FloridaClay wrote: eBay's new system seems to block the ability to copy photos--which is good news in terms of helping block people setting up sales of something they don't really have, but not so good for copying pics of something you bought.

There are ways to get around eBay's attempts to block content.

It IS a good looking, but very cheaply made machine. No exponential horn, it will probably have all kinds of resonances in the tone chamber. I don't think it will sound much better than a good portable with a well designed horn.

If you figure out it can use the 4-3 motor/motorboard I have one. I think it would need a pretty good cleaning but it is just sitting in my basement.

I have one and a half of these One is mostly parts and the other is in almost showroom condition; I bought it for the brass soundbox. Incidentallly they do have exponential horns but they are straight, not folded, ones. The same horn was used in the first VV 4-4 or Grenada models but it was changed in the Grenada model for a little more bass. I'll have to look to see if I have any worthwhile parts as the one I first got was in extremely bad condition. I think that I do have a motor board with motor; it is a one spring.