The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Many years ago I had the large Sonora Grand with a wooden tonearm. Now I have the smallest and cheapest version. What I am wondering is this. The one with the wood arm had some kind of material between the stylus bar an the springs that hold it centered. I have one now which was rebuilt but I don' think it has any kind of cushion between the metal spring and the stylus bar pivots. Did they or did they not use something at that point? As I recall it the one had a beeswax type material between them but that might have been something a restorer added along the way.. I haven't found anything on the net that mentions it one way or the other?

Larry

larryh wrote:Many years ago I had the large Sonora Grand with a wooden tonearm. Now I have the smallest and cheapest version. What I am wondering is this. The one with the wood arm had some kind of material between the stylus bar an the springs that hold it centered. I have one now which was rebuilt but I don' think it has any kind of cushion between the metal spring and the stylus bar pivots. Did they or did they not use something at that point? As I recall it the one had a beeswax type material between them but that might have been something a restorer added along the way.. I haven't found anything on the net that mentions it one way or the other?

Larry

I've never heard of a Masterophone reproducer. Can you post some pics for us all...?. Thanks.. .

Larry, I have a "Baby Grand" & there is no wax (or anything else) between the stylus bar & springs. The reproducer had never been rebuilt when the original owners family brought it to me to restore. Six months later they got hard up for money & sold it to me.(It's a nice oak machine.)
I've also rebuilt several other Sonora reproucers & have not noticed any "foreign materials" used.

Dale

Just saw gramophone78's post so this would not apply if it's not a Sonora sound box........

Thanks I just wanted to be sure.. I hear a bit of a metallic sound on very loud records and am wondering if it comes from where they touch perhaps, but it sounds like most likely not.

Here again is the reproducer:

I see I had it spelled wrong now that I view the photo that may be why it didn't ring a bell.


Larry

larryh wrote:I see I had it spelled wrong now that I view the photo that may be why it didn't ring a bell.


Larry

Ah!!..I see now. As mention in your last two threads, this is a "Maestrophone" reproducer made in Switzerland by Paillard.

The other member is correct.....there should be nothing placed between the two areas of the needle bar springs in question.

I see sometimes that a flat snip of rubber gasket had been put between the pivots and the needlebar, perhaps to soften the sound a bit, but I don't know if this has anything to do with this specific case as you seem to remember a wax-like material.

That was over 50 years ago so my recollection of exactly what the material may have been is probably faulty. I think what your saying might be true, it had a more mellow sound, or perhaps weaker sound than a standard victor of the time. But to my ear to day if you use a loud needle it produces a somewhat harsher tone.

Larry