The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hi,

I just bought an Edison Amberola 30 that has no front grill. I like to buy one, but am not sure whether the original was metal or wooden. I saw both in the past and have found photos of both on the web too. So what's the answer please?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Hello,
The Amberola 30 had a metal grill that was painted to look like wood grain oak. I do not think it ever came with a real wood grill. Many machines lost their grills over the years and had them replaced with home made wooden ones.
Pete

I agree with Pete. All Amberola 30 grills are metal and painted black or wood grained. Jerry Blais

Repro grills are available from all the usual parts suppliers.

Thanks a lot.

So, the wooden grills are all repro, right?

Do you know if any repro metal grills exist too? If so, how to distinguish a repro from an original metal grill?

Hello,
Any Amberola 30 "real" wood grills you come across are all reproduction. They would all be " home made" efforts to replace a missing grill. Correct reproduction metal grills have been made for years, probably as far back as the 1970's. I would buy a nice reproduction grill from Ron Sitko. You can get it already wood grained or just plain metal in case you want to paint it black. Later on if you happen to come across another Amberola 30 with a nice original grill you could swap grills and keep the best of both machines.
Here is a picture of my original Amberola 30 grill. The original owner went over the whole machine with a coat of orange shellac including the grill so it is not as nice as it should be.
Pete

Thanks for the info and photo! Your original grill has cloth. Do all originals have this? I checked photos on the web and many don't have any cloth.

I don't know if the Amberola 30's originally came with grill cloth. I will have to let one of our Forum member who knows for sure answer that. The earlier model Amberolas had a larger wood grained horn which looked very nice and so there was no need to cover it up with grill cloth. However the Amberola 30 horn is smaller, painted black and leaves a lot of the inside of the cabinet showing where dust can gather. I have always thought that it just looked much nicer with a grill cloth installed. Both my Amberola 50 and 75 have grill cloths. Here are a couple pictures off the internet. You tell me which looks better.

Here is another picture taken from an original Edison ad. It does show a grill cloth. However it is an artist rendition so you are never 100% sure.
Pete

From what I have read, Amberola 30s had grill cloth. The earliest ones had a burnt orange color grill cloth. The later ones had a tan or coffee color grill cloth. If you have the S/N available, I can give you a better idea.
Harvey Kravitz