The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I just got a real good copy of The Big Rock Candy Mountain. Number 5652 by Dalhart. Good cylinder. I paid 163.00 for it, also, does anyone know what year it was made?. And is that to much for a late cylinder? I am clueless when it comes to records. I just buy what I like.

This Edison Blue Amberol cylinder first appeared in the February 1929 Blue Amberol supplement so I'm quite certain that this title was released for sale on or about that month and year. It's a fantastic recording. I have it on Edison Diamond Disc and have posted a video of it playing on an early A-250 on my YouTube channel. It's a hard to find title on Edison DD and even harder to find on Blue Amberol. A good find for sure! You will enjoy it.

Thanks for the info Doug. 1929 is at the end I assume? It is a good cylinder.

Amberola wrote:Thanks for the info Doug. 1929 is at the end I assume?

My pleasure. I enjoy the late Blue Amberols as well. I believe June 1929 was about the last month of Blue Amberol new releases with #5719 "If I Had You" by John Gart (pipe organ solo) being the highest number released. I could be wrong on this as I'm going from memory but I believe that was pretty close to the end of the Blue Amberols released.

"Big Rock Candy Mountain" was matrix 18938, recorded 12 December 1928, also issued on disc 52472.

-HA

Is that an all electrical dub, or electrical acoustic. I tend to flip flop with those methods, too, I actually like to cut cylinders acoustically with a glass diaphragm when I record, I get some loud, clear records this way, with a speaker sealed in a horn. Those last Edisons were recorded on an Amberola 1B mechanism, mounted in a Triumph case with an electrical recorder, made of out a speaker driver, and has an advance ball, mounted on a microscope adjustment rack, to raise and lower the recorder to the master cylinder. I remember a test record that was made at Edison's electrical studio, and If I remember it was a GE amplifier, and they were putting different capacitors across the grid leaks for equalization,they started out with no capacitor, then .01,.02 ect. until they chose the one that gave them the sound they wanted.

Hi Amberola,

Here's a YouTube of this cylinder I posted on my YouTube website:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ekltT4k ... X9JyeFAtLQ

Bob S.

Zwebie wrote:Here's a YouTube of this cylinder I posted on my YouTube website:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ekltT4k ... X9JyeFAtLQ

Very nice! And here's the Diamond Disc version of the song from my YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z1OO4b2irk. I actually have two copies of this on Diamond Disc but have never found the cylinder.

Zwebie wrote:Hi Amberola,

Here's a YouTube of this cylinder I posted on my YouTube website:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ekltT4k ... X9JyeFAtLQ

Bob S.

Wonderful Bob. You have a lot of good songs on youtube.