The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Yet another EMG being gutted for parts.
Before. How did I miss it?.
Ebay item 141701817276

After

Ebay Item 252045153593

The seller still has the cabinet but has already sold the turntable.
Great pictures of the insides too.

This one needs saving. Out of my budget.

What on earth is the vendor doing breaking up such a rare and wonderful item ?! Rather a big difference in price which appears opportunistic and too high.

I have friends here in the US that would like to form a brute squad or "posse" to and visit those who seem to break up perfectly good or rare machines to part out on ebay. Maybe you could do the same in the UK?

Very sad indeed. The Lenco turntable was a later 1960's replacement.

Too bad as this would have been a nice example of 1950's Hi Fi. Was there an EMG speaker with it?

I think the rationale is that - seen postage and duties fares - nobody would ever want to purchase the whole cumbersome furniture (with a totally wrong record player by the way) while someone may want to buy the electronics alone.

A pity indeed (the loss of the original turntable in first place).

Hopefully not to appear too dismissive of an early 50's EMG radio-gram, but maybe the problem lies with the fact that it is just that, a radio-gram - something that very few people actually want these days. They are big and bulky and don't sound all that wonderful anymore. Time has passed them by. They certainly lack the visual appeal and technological marvel of the acoustic machines and by way of being "transitional" between early electrical amplification and later superior "Hi-Fi", get lost through the net, maybe?

Outside of the UK, few modern day collectors will associate or connect with the name EMG unless it ties to a large external horn acoustic gramophone. There were many other notable quality makers of radio-grams at the time and similarly these all end up getting scrapped. I owned a stunning RGD example over 25 years ago but had to sell it due to lack of space. It was one of the most beautiful cabinets ever produced (far more elegant and timeless than the dull monolithic EMG contemporaries, it must be said)and the components were all top notch. The person I sold it to I later discovered had put it in a conservatory as a novelty but due to pressure from his spouse, it was sent to landfill when they moved home!

Clearly the new vendor of the EMG parts is an opportunist who believes that the name EMG will sell anything so he is parting it out as high quality components in a bid to capitalise on the recent Ebay purchase, knowing full well that the market had dictated that the complete (or semi-complete) item was worth a few hundred pounds only. Someone somewhere will probably want some of the vintage amp design and other constituent parts to complete a restoration or a collection. There are many vintage radio and associated electronics collectors out there - far, far more than there are acoustic machine collectors. Yet, how many of these have the space or enthusiasm for bulky radio-grams? I can see the market that the current vendor is aiming at but as Graham has said he is woefully optimistic in his pricing strategy.

In the spirit of wanting to see as many of these past treasures retained in their original guises, I wish him every failure in his efforts!

Thanks for pointing out that the Goldring Lenco GL68 is out of place as it's from 1965. The DR15 was available from 1949 and all through the 50's. So the turntable would have been an upgrade.
As for the Vendor, My instincts were to scream blue murder but then again he is only trying to make a living and he seems to have done a great job of cleaning up the amp. The KT66 amp is probably the only thing that interested him. He obviously knows they sell for mega bucks.
Good luck to him. I just hope it end up in the right hands.

This may be wishful thinking but I thought it worth a try anyway.....letter to the vendor earlier today but no reply yet.

Good afternoon. It would be a great tragedy for this instrument to be broken up---such things may be out of fashion at present but they are historically valuable items at the top of the sound reproduction tree in the nineteen-fifties. It is true that the turntable may not be part of the original equipment and presumably you do not have a speaker and baffle ? However, PLEASE keep everything together for the benefit of posterity but I think you will find the price you are asking will prove a little optimistic. I know the case is not the greatest piece of craftsmanship but with a good French polish (or equivalent contemporary finish), it can be dramatically improved. I hope you will not mind me making these forthright comments but it is always sad when future generations are forgotten about---fashions are bound to change. Best wishes, Graham.

I can just imagine the response you'll get to that, if any!

Maybe, but you never know, a little nudge might just make the difference between destruction and the case being passed on with the amp/tuner to the new owner.