The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I have a later model Edison Amberola 30. I cannot seem to find the speed adjustment control. My older model 30 has the speed control adjustment screw sticking through the gear cover, the new model has no hole in the gear cover where an adjusting screw would be. Am I missing something here - old age maybe?

The speed control for the later Amberola 30's is in nearly the same place but you must remove the gear cover to gain access. jerry

Thanks Jerry, will remove the cover tonight. I wonder if I could replace that cover with the older style and add an adjusting screw set up from one of my Amberola 30 parts machines? Just curious to why they did that - eliminated the hole and adjusting screw?

The speed adjustment was removed because all cylinders were being released at 160 rpm, so (theoretically at least) there would never be any need to change the speed once it was set by the factory.

There is one "oddball" exception in the later 30s. A model made for the International Correspondence School's language cylinders had an exposed speed control because those cylinders were recorded at 90 rpm. That machine also had a weird looking model H repro with the weight partially cut off so that it could play the 4M was language cylinders.

So just to clarify this, the Amberola 30, and later Amberola machines, were designed to play ONLY the blue Amberol cylinders, and I assume the Royal Purple series,,,,, but not the green box 4M black Amberol cylinders? I get that confused when grabbing a record.

Your Amberola 30 will play any 4M celluloid record - Blue/Royal Purple Amberol, US Everlating, Indestructible, etc., but the diamond reproducer will destroy any 4M wax record on the first play.

NEVER play a wax cylinder on a late Amberola with a Diamond C reproducer. Never play a wax cylinder with any of the diamond reproducers such as the A, B, or C. Jerry Blais