The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I purchased a home 4 clip on EBay for $305 including shipping. It is s/n 18480 and has a winged C reproducer s/n 126474. It also came with a horn and 9 blue cylinders. I believe the horn is an original but you can comment and let me know. I had it with two others to compare them. With a hour work oiling and adjustment it plays a couple of two minute cylinders. I do not know why they had attached the blue cylinders to it but they were a nice bonus as the do not play on this machine. I still have a little more work on it but it is 90% done now. Pictures are reversed in order. The original machine are at the end. I forgot how they post on this site.

Looks very nice. You did a great job on it. Congrats on a nice buy as well.

What a bargain! I am surprised it ended up so cheap. That's rare on eBay.

The center horn in your picture looks like a repro to me, the other 2 appear original.

I see you used Meguiers compound and o clean the machine. I would highly recommend that you use Meguires Scratch X as it works the best I have found. Here is an example.

Rich Gordon

Terrific buy and a nice machine. I think the middle and right horns are reproductions. At first glance the horn on the right appears to a better quality reproduction with a crimped small end, perhaps a Smith horn, but it does not have the raised brass seam between the body and the brass bell. Jerry B.

Yes, the horn in the center and the horn on the right are definitely reproductions. The horn on the left is original.

Nice job with the banner decal also. What did you use to touch it up? (I'm assuming it was touched up and not replaced.)

Clay

You got a heck of a deal on that one! An original horn is worth at least $75. You did a fine job on cleaning it up. I also would like to know what type of paint you used to touch up the decal.
Pete

I used the meguiers compound to clean it but the surface is a little questionable and I did not want to screw it up too much from the original. It was taking off the shellac... I used a black gel excel .07 black pen for the lines. For the gold I used a gold uniball gel impact 1.0 I am having a problem with the red and I can not get a close match so I figure it best not to screw it up. I just finished coating the label and touch ups with orange shellac to blend it in. From three feet away I can not see a difference. I might take the lid in and see if I can get a closer red. I purchased the items from Michaels in the school section. The gold I believe came from Michael's and Amazon.. Just get the gel pens.
On the horns I need to look for the rolled seam between the bell and the body??? I know the later reproductions stand out as lighter metal and cheaply made but that is all that is available it seems that is reasonable and does not need a lot of work Tom B

Fonotone wrote:Yes, the horn in the center and the horn on the right are definitely reproductions. The horn on the left is original.

I definitely agree.

There is one detail that interests me, though. On the original horn, the crimped end seems to be fairly long, compared to an example I have. Were there variations between the early and late B&B horns?

Bill