The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Finished working on this $85 dollar rescue. Came out really nice and sounds great. Worked forever on the legs. the last couple photos are what I started with. Cheers

Bill K.

Looks nice!

George P.

Nice job, Bill! What a beauty it is now -- a very impressive phonograph! Is the grille cloth a metallic weave, like the Credenza's? Seems like it in the photos, but I'm not sure if I'm reading it right. I think that's one of the nicest Viva-Tonal grilles, too. Congrats on a sweet find.

She's a looker, that's for sure! Are the small trim pieces at the bottom
painted as well?

Beautiful machine, congratulations!

Andreas

Thats a great looking machine, nice job
cleaning it up.
Gene

A very handsome machine now. Congrats!

I am thinking (as someone mentioned it earlier in this thread) that the grille cloth could very well be identical to that used in the Credenza. That was the case with my VivaTonal 710 and fortunately I happened to have just enough of the original stuff to replace it. Sadly the cloth went out of production just a few years back and is now very hard to come by, but it looks like yours is intact. The coppery sheen complements the decorative paint colors Columbia used.

Clay

Mr Grumpy wrote:She's a looker, that's for sure! Are the small trim pieces at the bottom
painted as well?

Thanks. No, the only thing I had to really fiddle with was the legs which I had to stain. Everything else came out nice using Howard Restore-A-Finish. I also had to replace a large section of the bead on one of the doors. After I was finished I gave it a good going over with Liquid Gold.

Cheers
Bill K

Cody K wrote:Nice job, Bill! What a beauty it is now -- a very impressive phonograph! Is the grille cloth a metallic weave, like the Credenza's? Seems like it in the photos, but I'm not sure if I'm reading it right. I think that's one of the nicest Viva-Tonal grilles, too. Congrats on a sweet find.

I believe it is now that I took a real close look. I could not believe it was in one piece.

Forgot to include a photo of the motor and tone arm if anyone is interested. I could not believe how heavy the tone arm is.

Cheers

Bill K