The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I was glad to see the thread about the availability of reproduction Zonophone Concert reproducers. It reminded me of the fact that nearly all long throat reproducers have the same size throats that either go into leather or metal elbows. It must have been a victory of some sort when, for example, the owner of a Victor machine got tired of dealing with the Concert reproducer and bought a replacement from the local Columbia dealer. We've all seen machines with incorrect reproducers. It's wrong but is it a major sin? If you bought a such a machine and it was family owned since new, would it be critical for you to find a more correct reproducer?

Jerry Blais

It would be hard to say. Yes, if a different reproducer was used to upgrade the original one, I guess it would be OK. In the collector world, we would like to see a machine with the correct, original reproducer that came with the machine, when new. A lot of times you will see a machine that a collector would remove the correct reproducer for thier machine, and put a lesser reproducer on a machine they are going to sell. That's my perspective.
Harvey Kravitz

Good question! I think it is perplexing to find a machine with what appears to be a non-factory part on it. Twenty or Thirty years ago, it was hard to tell what was correct, unless a collector had gained enough experience to draw conclusions based on a quantity of the same machine passing through their hands. Now, thanks to the wonderful proliferation of books and other data, things can be accurately corrected if one so chooses. Yet, I like that you point out the possibility of upgrade. I have a few machines which appear to have wrong reproducers on them, but I hesitate to replace them with originals, as I have no way of knowing if the change was done way back then by the early owner, or recently by a collector. However, if the change is so far off the correctness scale, such as a Columbia long throat on a Victor R, or a Nickel Victrola 2 on an early Victrola XV, then I would make the change. Russie