The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

This is the Opera I had a year ago. All fixed up and playing again. Paul Baker is a very talented man and a good friend.

I noticed that you played a wax cylinder. Was that reproducer really meant to play wax? The US phonograph company published Everlasting celluloid cylinders and I had assumed the machine would use a heavier reproducer weight to extract more volume from those harder cylinders.

A beautiful and interesting machine.

Sounds good!

Clay

Congratulations, spectacular!!!

I have heard that the flexible hose used to connect the reproducer to the horn elbow is prone to leaks. Did you check all this out when you restored it? The sound, to me, sounds a bit thin, like there might be some air leaks. Otherwise, a beautiful machine.

I think it's just the recording. The flex tone arm was in really good shape.

These machines are well able to play all forms of standard diameter cylinder records wax or celluloid including the 6" Columbia's without any undue wear to the records. The machine sounds as good as an Edison with an O reproducer. The tone arm is tight and transmits the sound well.

Another quick note. Most U.S. everlasting records(including Lakeside)due to shrinkage have changed their thread pitch. They are no longer 100TPI for the 2min or 200TPI for the 4min. I have not measured the present range but I do know that they suffer a skip over when played on Edison and U.S. Machines as the lateral movement allowance for the various reproducers is not enough to allow the records to play all the way through without at least one skip over and sometimes twice.They are most likely to do the same on Columbia as well.Because of the way Blue Amberols and Indestructables are constructed, they do not suffer from this phenomenom to the same degree and rarely have this skip over problem. I have collected for over 50 years and the U.S. records did not have this problem until recently which shows they are continuously shrinking. Aside from this problem, they are wonderful records to listen to and are very well recorded.

Some of the US Everlasting 4M recordings are exceptionally well recorded. The US Everlasting cylinders shrinkage also leads to the celluloid film splitting from end to end, apparently all at once. I bought a nice one on eBay and paid a premium for it. A year later, I discovered it had split. Yikes! I also have a rare recording of "Black and White Rag" played on the piano by Albert Bentzler - I would cry if that suddenly split.

I too have several that have split. I wonder if all of these records are destined for this outcome?