The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

A little over a year ago I bought a Brooks Repeater locally and posted a couple of questions about it to the forum. The tone arm was blasted pot metal, useless, and I attempted to repair it with JB weld, to no good end. An ebay posting caught my eye, and I bought the item; I believe it is a tone arm for a Repeater, and I'd like some of the members who are familiar with the machine to comment on whether I am right or not. It looks like the shards of stuff I have in my basement, except it is whole and in decent shape. Thanks in advance.

I see your photo was embedded in a docx (MS Word) file.

I thought I'd post just the image, for easier viewing --
OrthoFan

Many thanks!

Photos of my Brooks Repeater tone arm....

Bill K

Thanks for these, they are very helpful. I wonder if there were generations of repeaters? Your logo (on the cabinet) is different from the one on my machine, but the mechanism is the same--and it seems to work. Do you use some kind of tungs-tone or fiber needle? I wouldn't want to play through 8 repeats with the same steel needle...

"I wouldn't want to play through 8 repeats with the same steel needle..."

I wouldn't either, but since the reproducer rotates to play Pathé records, you could use a sapphire styus and play a Pathé record as many times as you want...

While your arm looks different I'm sure there were variations. There is a very informative article on a table top Brooks Repeating Phonograph in the March 2016 issue of the "The Antique Phonograph." The tone arm pictured in the article is identical to my upright machine which a friend purchased for me at a local auction for $80. The tone arm base was broken, fortunately I was able to get a replacement from George Vollema who also had a copy of the operating instructions.......

I have played it very few times with steel needles only. Cheers


Bill K

A relevant link about long play needles is here: http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... =2&t=28849

Thanks for the comments! There is a good video of the Repeater in action on the Antique Phonograph Society website, produced by Shawn O'Rourke; the arm on his machine looks like the one I saw on eBay. I tried George Vollema first, but he did not have an arm I could use (kind of surprising as he is usually unstumpable) Shawn sold me a reproducer which resembles the one in the first photo. I have never tried tungs-tone styli but these references look helpful.
Thanks again for your suggestions.

I think the repeater is nowhere near gentle enough for the Pathé sapphire to survive it.

I have a Brooks Repeater upright, complete and unrestored, if anyone wants to play around with one. It needs restoration so it can go at a cheap price. Located on the West Coast, near SF, but can utilize the Blais Express to easily get it elsewhere.