The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Just brought home a British made phonograph with a Garrard spring motor, a Marconiphone reproducer (with owners manual), and a Blue Spot speaker.

I'd wager it once had a radio in it, but that space is now empty (just below the turntable motor).

Probably the most interesting bit from this machine would be the manual, so pictures are attached. It is folded accordion style.

Cliff

The tone arm has a counter-weight on the back end. Pretty advanced for 1930 or so.

Cliff

So, I hooked some wires to the first and third posts on the tone arm base and plugged it in to my MIC input on the computer and got nothing, no sound transfer at all. That's a bad sign, right?

Have you replaced the rubber components inside the pick-up?
If not, chances are you wont even hear a crackle.
Personally, i find these electric pick-up's quite easy to restore provided the coil is not damaged, but the wires from the coil are extremely fine and break off at the body of the coil fairly easy if not handled with Care.
It is pretty uncommon to plug one of these in and find they still work, and even if they do, I'd recommend replacing the now 85 year old rubber components anyway for proper compliance of the needle bar (armature).

It is possible I could test for continuity with an ohm meter, but I'm 0 for 3 in successfully repairing (or even reassembling) these magnetic pickups. I've been told I do more damage to them than was originally present by the time I finally pass them on to someone who understands them. This one is too cool to risk 0 for 4.

I would send it to http://www.west-techservices.com/p1.htm To be rebuilt, I think it would be worth it. We had our Presto cutter lathe head rebuilt and it works better than it would when it was new.