The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

So I guess its a good thing that im into phonographs and not cars.
Has anyone else done anything like this other than me? please share!!
a few before and afters..

I recognize that Cheney, I've been to your house and seen it.

I'd rather see the Cheney in mahogany, but you did do a clean job. It could look nice if you've got the means to go a bit further, maybe some Chinese fretwork.

I can understand why you reworked the portable - the material on those has a nasty tendency to shrink at the corners. You can get very good replacement handers from here: http://www.brettunsvillage.com/trunks/h ... andles.htm

Been to my house before? Name?

I do agree about the cheney, I would have loved to have done it in a nice mahogany. The problem with it that led me to painting, was that the veneer on most of the machine was pretty bad. the top of the lid and the crank side was mostly missing and splintering. I removed alot of the veneer, and the construction under the veneer was multiple, pieced together wood, making up the sides and such, some darker and some lighter, I figured it would not have stained very well.

AND PRESTO!! a phonograph for any funeral parlor or tattoo shop

Very good work!

Probably my most extreme B/A to date. CDB

Nice transformations. Here are my most difficult cases so far. Both machines looked actually worse than in the eBay pictures:
Andreas

Well, I had a beat Victor III and before all you bleeding hearts scream Heresy! It was a wreck. Crushed corner, missing the wood trim at the top of the box at the hinge which I had to fabricate. The horn was also crap. So I decided since it was never going to be right - it would be "not right" I wanted to try something.

I had Gregg Cline make me a silver back bracket decal and refinish the bracket. He also made me a silver horn decal which came out great for the purpose and Dave Teti pin stripe the horn. It wasn't a no cost deal and it came out great - it just isn't typical. Enjoy! John

One of my Amberola 30's was pretty trashed, but lookin' good now. I decided to go with gloss black, with no cloth for the speaker grill.. not factory, but I like the look...
Steve

Ripduf1 wrote:Well, I had a beat Victor III and before all you bleeding hearts scream Heresy! It was a wreck. Crushed corner, missing the wood trim at the top of the box at the hinge which I had to fabricate. The horn was also crap. So I decided since it was never going to be right - it would be "not right" I wanted to try something.

I had Gregg Cline make me a silver back bracket decal and refinish the bracket. He also made me a silver horn decal which came out great for the purpose and Dave Teti pin stripe the horn. It wasn't a no cost deal and it came out great - it just isn't typical. Enjoy! John

That Victor III doesn't look bad at all. Sometimes a playa gets tired of looking at all that wood.

To add to that, it might be even better with the green TT felt removed and replaced with a sparkly glitter covering. Or a moon and stars / outer space design. But that may turn out to be a little inelegant.