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Victrola Granada Tapered Arm Styles?

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 8:00 pm
by fourforty
Has anyone seen more than one style of tapered arm for the Orthophonic Victrola Granada? The Victor Data Book says that an arm with no overhang support was used up to about serial number 39000. After that supposedly all were equipped with arms having the overhang support.

My Granada has a serial number of 60823 and it has the first style arm with no overhang support. The previous family that owned it said it was unmodified and they possessed it since 1935.

Also I did a picture search on the internet and every Granada arm I could see had no overhang support.

Anyone out there have an original Granada with the overhang supported taper arm?

David

Re: Victrola Granada Tapered Arm Styles?

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 8:07 pm
by whoopinola
I once had an electric Granada that I got for a song...It was missing a lid..so I found one , It was a different size , different in width and depth by ⅛ to ¼ inch....When it comes to Victor stuff anything's possible.

Re: Victrola Granada Tapered Arm Styles?

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 8:18 pm
by Uncle Vanya
I have seen five different tone arms on the Granada/4-4 machines. The first would be the "fat" tone arm, of around two inches in diameter, with a soldered joint in the last large curve. these jointed arms were used only in the earliest production. Shortly after the introduction of the die-cast reproducers, Victor developed a method of making one-piece taper tubes, for the Orthophonic machines. the great majority of thes Granada machines are fitted with these one-piece taper tubes. All of these alrge tone arms lacked the overhang support. Towards the end of Granada production the horn was redesigned. This new horn was folded and bifurcated, and was designed for use with a much narrower tone arm, similar in diameter to that used on the Credenza, but of course shorter. The earliest of these machines were fitted with arms which also lacked the overhang support.
A small production run of these machines was subsequently made with overhang supports. all of the previously mentioned machines were furnished with nickle plated ahrdware and tone arms. A very few late 4-4 machines were shipped with gunmetal (oxidyzed) furniture ant tone arms, in the manner of the later 4-40 model.

Re: Victrola Granada Tapered Arm Styles?

Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2013 10:48 am
by De Soto Frank
Earlier this week, I looked at a VE 4-40X from 1927 ( paper label on underside of cabinet) with (broken) top-pin taper-tube support. Aside from the pot-metal damage, it looks to be unmolested. The serial number was 18??? (forgot thte last three digits :oops: )


I just checked my Great-Grandmother's VE 8-12, also from 1927, and this machine has a top-pin taper-tube mount as well.

Re: Victrola Granada Tapered Arm Styles?

Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2013 11:05 am
by fourforty
Thanks for the info, Uncle Vanya.

Based on what you have just said, I have taken another look at the Victor Data Book with fresh eyes. Here is what I notice:

Granada/4-4 Production
1925 9,926
1926 60,000
1927 298
1928 5

4-40 Production
1927 57,715
1928 31,197
1929 4,633
1930 2,097

The main year of production overlap according to Victor was 1927. Perhaps '27 was the year when the remaining Granada cabinets at Camden got the overhang supported arms which were then in full production with the 4-40.

So maybe the reason why I personally haven't seen any Granadas with overhang supported arms is because the ratio of production was tens of thousands without overhang arms, to only hundreds made with the overhang arm.

Re: Victrola Granada Tapered Arm Styles?

Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2020 12:21 am
by ymg200
I know that this is the old thread, but I was looking for the info about Granada tonearm styles and my search brought me here. I just posted the question on the same topic, I'll appreciate info on this:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=31163&hilit=orthoph ... t&start=10

Re: Victrola Granada Tapered Arm Styles?

Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2020 9:04 pm
by AmberolaAndy
I have some Granada parts (including the tone arm) I’ll have to take a picture of it.

Re: Victrola Granada Tapered Arm Styles?

Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2020 9:56 pm
by BillH_NJ
I have two Granadas—S/N 37600 and Granada X S/N 2030. I haven’t played either one lately so I will need to check the tone arms since I (unfortunately) don’t remember what the mounts are on the two of them.

Bill