Brunswick Ultona Rebuild

[CarGuyZM10]

I know these are prone to zinc pest, which I have seen first hand in Lionel Trains, but is it possible to rebuild these? I have one, and I am in love with this machine. Out of my 4 acoustic machines, I say it does at least 90% of my acoustic playing. Right now it seems fine, just that the gaskets are hard, and I would imagine it would sound even better, and be easier on the records if it was rebuilt. All suggestions are welcome.

[Uncle Vanya]

The 1924 mand 1925 production used brass Ultona and tone arm and reproducer parts. You may have one of these. if not, they do turn up, for most of these alte machines were consoles, and hence they are unpopular with collectors, and are often parted out.

[CarGuyZM10]

That's certainly an option. Here are some old photos of what I have, from when I brought it home:

[Mr Grumpy]

I rebuilt my Ultona, I had to place it in the freezer over night to remove the retaining ring
from the diaphragm. It popped out easily once frozen. I used the exhibition style white rubber tubing
but I think the diameter of the tube is a bit too small, It reduced quite a bit of the buzzing that mine was suffering from, but it wasn't perfect. I'm going to try again with a bigger size tubing or add some paper shims.

I also have a reproducer like the one you have pictured (without the Edison side) I find it sounds much better.
I bought it in case I broke the retaining ring on the Ultona but it ended up being slightly different in shape and not a perfect match.

Good luck, and keep us posted please.

[CarGuyZM10]

Thanks, that is a good idea if I decide to try this myself.

Wait, without an Edison side? When I bought this phonograph out of an attic (the elderly gentleman said it was his mother in law's house, and it had been there since he knew her), it came with diamond discs as well as regular records, so I just assumed the other setting was for diamond disks. Am I wrong?

[EdiBrunsVic]

After looking at the photo, the reproducer is equipped to play the regular records and Pathé discs. There is an Ultona available with the Edison reproducer (making three) included. I had one like yours and then traded mine for a three-way Ultona with a little extra money added. Perhaps this is helpful to you. I too like the sound quality of the Brunswick Phonograph.

[martinola]

I recall hearing that the design was simplified and the Edison side was eliminated. In the later version, one changed from Edison to Pathé by inserting the correct stylus in the vertical chuck (including adjustments of weight position and rotation). It's been years since I had one of these, so I could be remembering it wrong.

- Martin

[need4art]

Nope you are right-I have one of those and with the right stylus it plays DD well-and no it does not chew tham up. When I tried this the first time I played a DD record on my Edison DD, then on the Brunswick and then again on the DD machine-did not hurt the record.
Abe

[Mr Grumpy]

Here's a link to a scan of an Ultona Instruction manual.

http://www.nipperhead.com/old/brult.htm

As you can see in the manual it had three sides, one for the Edison DD
and the other for Pathé and lateral cut. Your reproducer pictured only has the Pathé and lateral cut side.
You may be able to insert some type of diamond needle in the Pathé needle holder as need4art suggests but I always assumed you needed the third side because of the way the diaphragm was situated opposite the DD record.


Edit: My confusion between lat and vertical cut

[Edisone]

I was just looking at the patent,and noticed two interesting things: The tone arm is made to prevent users from putting the Edison side on a standard 78 (won't reach, it says) ... and the base of the tone arm was designed with a trough to hold oil, to seal the joint. I'll hafta check to see if they actually built them that way.