The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

A lady called me about a "fumed oak" L-door 16 and asked if I would like to buy it. So, I went over to take a look and did. While there, I was also shown this.......an Amberola 5 serial # 3811. I have to say I have never seen one in the flesh. It runs so nice. To me it looks like a Opera clone. I say this because, there is no belt. It also has an auto stop adjustment. How often do these turn up???. Too bad I'm not an Edison collector....

That is a nice looking Amberola V. Many times these have dried and flaking bedplate paint but this one looks unusually well preserved. And the striping is quite nice as well. Probably this one has had little use and been cared for. If the price was right I hope you bought it because they're pretty hard to find like this and any of the pre-fire Amberolas are harder to find than the later ones (30, 50, 75 models).

You may not be an Edison collector (yet) but every collection should include at least one Edison machine, and this one could be yours.

Go for it!

The V mechanism is similar to the Opera with its beltless design and the huge flywheel/mandrel spring setup. It does not have the traversing mandrel. It's the only enclosed-horn tabletop machine with the adjustable auto-stop. It's beautifully designed, and the most-used of my cylinder machines. I'd recommend it to any collector!
Bob

If you could have only one table model Amberola, the V is THE one to own. It has an attractive cabinet, a wonderfully designed mechanism, and it is not frequently found. Jerry

It's missing the feet but otherwise very nice, better than most you see and much less frequently seen than the 30, 50, 75 etceteras. Nice find!

Valecnik wrote:It's missing the feet but otherwise very nice, better than most you see and much less frequently seen than the 30, 50, 75 etceteras. Nice find!

It had feet...???. I don't see any signs of ever having them. In the books I have, they all show as flat on the table. What do the feet look like??. Even the oak one in the "Compendium" shows no feet. Interesting......

I have to say that is one beautiful machine! Nice cabinet and bedplate. I love the design of the cabinet.

gramophone78 wrote:

Valecnik wrote:It's missing the feet but otherwise very nice, better than most you see and much less frequently seen than the 30, 50, 75 etceteras. Nice find!

It had feet...???. I don't see any signs of ever having them. In the books I have, they all show as flat on the table. What do the feet look like??. Even the oak one in the "Compendium" shows no feet. Interesting......

The feet are round, turned, only about an inch tall if that, slightly narrower on the top and bottom and wider in the middle. I think they fell off quite readily. To me they always seemed too small for the machine but do add to the elegance when they are there.

My oak Amberola V has its original feet-


My mahagony was acquired without feet, but with the holes for them underneath. With no woodworking tools available, I made up a pretty good substitute using wooden wheels (from Michaels Crafts) stacked and glued, then fitted with a dowel.

Though I have replacement feet now, they're not installed, since the cylinder cabinet it sits on isn't deep enough. Without the feet there's a little overlap on front and back, but it works.
Maybe back in the day people removed the feet because of this. Or maybe one would get broken, and the easiest thing to do would be to remove the rest!
Bob