The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I purchased this Edisonic Schubert sight unseen back in August.
My brother-in-law lives about 5 miles from the seller outside of Atlanta, Georgia.
My in-laws, who also live near Atlanta, are here for Christmas and brought the machine to me this weekend.
As can be seen, the case has some missing veneer and some that is bubbling on the sides.
The knurled collar that holds the reproducer is snapped off.
Can this be successfully re-soldered/ welded back on, or do I need a whole new horn?
Is this machine worth trying to fix, or do I sell the reproducer and try to re-coup what I spent?
I say fix.
I'd hate to part it out.
What do others say?
I paid $100 for this project/ headache!
Please do not hold back your opinions, I'm very thick skinned.
Thank you for your opinion and Merry Christmas!
Gene

Gene, I can't tell, is there a piece of the horn broken off inside the knurled piece?

That collar on the horn was lead-soldered in place originally, wasn't it? If that's dislodged, I'd look at the solder joint on the vertical support shaft as well (at the top where it joins the lift handle through the turntable base). Is that loose or snapped? Both can be redone, sturdier than original due to improved welding/brazing techniques employed now.

Assuming there's no surprises in the mechanism (mainspring, governor, feedscrew, etc. all there), and how few of these machines there are, I'd say you have a great project there bad veneer or no. Save it by all means.

Mine was worse than that, and I paid $200!

I saved mine; it took about 50 hours of work fixing the legs and completely reveneering one side and the top of the lid. But it looks fine now and plays like a banshee.

SAVE IT!

George P.

Gene:

I would definitely save the machine. Go through and clean the motor, replace that horn connector. Then I would make sure the reproducer has been rebuilt.
As for the cabinet, I recommend Restor-A-Finish,but I would maybe cut out some thin sheet veneer and fit it in and glue in place to fix the bad part where the veneer is missing.

More than anything its more cleaning and sprucing it up. At 100.00 the price was right.

Bob,
looks like it came off right at the solder joint.
thanks for the info so far!
I will save this thing or else!
Gene

gemering wrote: I will save this thing or else!
Gene

Good for you, Gene.

There aren't that many Edisonics (Schuberts and Beethovens) around, and they're historic machines in that they were the last Edisons designed to play hill & dale records acoustically. With your Class M, you have the first (I don't include the tinfoil models) and the last of these acoustic phonographs manufactured by Edison.

Someday, some other collector will be be very glad you didn't part it out.

George P.

I have only seen one in my life, and it played like a concert hall. The sound was incredibly real. I think the Edisonics were ahead of their time. The sound is as it is in the room with you. They are great for those 52000 series records, and hold to the groove, where some of the regular Edison reproducers kind of bounce out of groove on high frequencies.

The antique dealer kept pretending to sell me the machine but kept saying she would not and then she would...I just got tired of the games.

Get us some pics as restoration is in progress or when it is complete, I think we will all enjoy it.

Thanks for the positive vibes.
I'll keep everyone posted!
Gene

Save it, what a wonderful machine it will be, loud, clear and high fidelity.