The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hi All,

Yesterday I went to the Seattle area's annual antique radio swap meet for the first time. I had a lot of fun, talked to quite a few people, and learned a fair amount too. As with most swap meets, there were some things there that were not quite the main subject of the event, including, in this case, a few phonographs. One of them really caught my eye, just because of what it appeared to be, though I really don't much at all about it. I'm hoping I can learn more from some of you guys.

The fellow who was trying to sell this machine said it was Victor's very first all-electric phonograph, introduced, he thought, about 1926. I should have written the model number down, but didn't think to do that. I'm wanting to say it was a VE-1047, but I can't find any mention of such a model on the internet - in my admittedly limited searching yesterday and today.

I took a few photos of this machine, and hope that some of you might recognize it and know what it is.

What first caught my eye was what I thought to be a more-than-coincidental resemblance to a Credenza in certain respects. It had four doors, like most Credenzas, and the doors had the same style of raised moldings and knobs on them. As you can see in the pictures though, it sits up on tall legs, so very unlike a Credenza in that regard.

Like a Credenza, the two outer, narrow doors are for record storage, and the two wider center doors open the machine up for listening. Inside, there's yet another door that covers the "turntable compartment". This door is hinged at the top, swings up to open and then slides back inside the cabinet.

The main power switch is inside the compartment and turns on everything, including a light in the compartment, and a nice little red jeweled light centered in the ornamental carving at the bottom edge of the cabinet.

There is no radio in this unit, just a phonograph. Please take a look and see if you can tell me more about it.

Thanks, Jerry K

P.S. Sad to say, but someone had stolen the reproducer off this machine earlier that morning.

Jerry, This is Electrola 12-25. They were made from 1927-30. There were approximately 2184 made, so they scarce. The reproducer is an Orthophonic made of pot metal. Did you get the machine?
Harvey Kravitz

Phonofreak wrote:The reproducer is an Orthophonic made of pot metal.

As this machine is equipped with an amplifier and cone speaker, I would have expected an electrical pickup.

I would buy it! Even without the pick-up! Looks to be in very nice condition.

AZ* wrote:

Phonofreak wrote:The reproducer is an Orthophonic made of pot metal.

As this machine is equipped with an amplifier and cone speaker, I would have expected an electrical pickup.

Yes. The Victor Data Book indicates that is has a taper arm with and electrical connector.

A really handsome machine well worth considering if the price is right. Really sad that the reproducer was stolen. I guess the caveat is how difficult would it be to find a replacement, given that this was a low-volume model? I don't know enough about machines of this era to know if the reproducer it used was shared with other models.

Clay

It's a beauty. Electrical pickups for these were used in several models and are not that hard to come by with some searching. One thing to consider is that the electronics will at least need to be checked out and the pickup would need rebuilding. Others on here would know more about the amplifiers these used, some of them were prone to problems from early on, I have no idea if this was one of those models.

Sean

Some of those Electrola amplifiers used vacuum tubes that are quite scarce. For example I have a radiola/electrola combo that uses the type 50 output tube and a couple of type 81 rectifiers. I think the Horseshoe magnet pickup was pretty much the same for all Electrola models in that time frame.

AZ* wrote:

Phonofreak wrote:The reproducer is an Orthophonic made of pot metal.

As this machine is equipped with an amplifier and cone speaker, I would have expected an electrical pickup.

You are of course, correct. It does use an electrical pickup. There is a set of wires running inside the tone-arm ending in a couple of spring loaded pins that mate to contacts on the pick-up when it is installed on the arm.

It would be very nice to see a rear view of this machine, showing the amplifier electronics.

Thanks to everyone who responded. I knew somebody was likely to come up with the answer. I had a hunch it was something fairly unusual. I didn't think to take a picture of the insides of the machine, although the back was off so you could get a good look. The seller pointed out one unusually-shaped tube in particular.

I knew I wasn't in the market (no room for such a big item, for one thing) so I didn't even ask the price or anything like that. I hope it found, or finds, a good home.