The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Ah yes---the RCA "Magic Brain" changer. There is a neat video of one in operation on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHIAa_J0Rqc

I'm still intrigued how so many early changers were so careful in setting the record onto the turntable, only to zing that record into a chute when the song was over.

Kirkwood wrote:I'm still intrigued how so many early changers were so careful in setting the record onto the turntable, only to zing that record into a chute when the song was over.

Ah, but once you've heard the song, who cares if the record breaks?

You guys have it all wrong. I own a Victrola V-225 and the records never break from dropping down the chute. It's ingenious how the records drop. The record drops down without even touching the other records in there and hits a cushion. Then the record hops over to the played stack on the side. Where you can break a record is during the initial drop when the record drops through thin air down to the motor board. The record doesn't drop onto the turntable! The turntable comes up to find the hole and lifts it up! There are several rubber bumpers that were probably soft rubber in 1942, but are now rock hard. I found that post war Capitols are very brittle and prone to break during this fall. Lost few Les Paul and Mary Ford records that way. No problem, I got them for free and had more of them anyway. Cure, all I had to do was tape a couple strips of bubble wrap onto the motor board and no more cracked records!

I've heard of a restorer who's tried replacing the bumpers using cut pieces from baby bottle nipples. Just a thought..
Bob