The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I've owned and sold a lot of great machines during my many years of collecting, and usually I don't suffer from seller's remorse. But every once in a while I do kick myself over something, so when the ultra-rare opportunity to buy back such a treasure comes along it's a treat. This is a case in point. I don't even remember why I chose to sell it 8 or 9 years ago, but I'm happy to have it again.

It's a Columbia AD, which could be considered an AB on steroids. Basically, it's a Home Grand but with telescoping mandrels as on the AB. It's the only Graphophone to use two belts. It was released in 1902, priced at $75, but was apparently not a big seller. By then the Concert / Grand 5" cylinders were nearly obsolete. It's a big and HEAVY machine with a beefy 6-spring motor. Yikes.

Gilding the lily, this has a Bettini Type Nf attachment. Bettini attachments for Graphophones are much scarcer than those for Edison phonographs so this is pretty special.

Bettini attachments can be a real pain to adjust, but with a couple of hours of tweaking I got this to play so loud that it's almost deafening. (I still need to work on the tracking issue.) The combination of Concert cylinder with Bettini reproducer is almost too much for home use.

EDIT: here's a better video. I deleted my crappy iPhone version:

https://youtu.be/_lYOEP8qJX0

I hope that you hold onto it this time. Congratulations on getting it back. That is quite a machine. Thanks for sharing.

Congratulations... BUT I hate it when I start to feel this way...

Beautiful machine, Rene! With the Bettini Attachment it has wonderful lines, doesn't it?

(Old Lady here... I believe the AF also used two belts! )

Congratulations!

George P.

Rene,

Really spectacular AD! The Bettini attachment adds some more class to a beautiful machine. George is correct the AF was the other model that used 2 belts, but then it used the same upper works just the cheaper motor and cabinet of the AG models.


Chuck

phonogfp wrote:I believe the AF also used two belts!

Maxima mea culpa. Of course, you're right!

I bought one out of the recycler a weekly newspaper type of thing it was advertized as Victrola that played cylinders so i had go have a look It was a Cloumbia AD with 5 inch madrel missing no serial numbers and case was dry rotted , I paid the man $ 50.00 for and sold a week later for $2850.00 the man i sold it to had it restored with repro decal phillips head screws OMG but i made my money back!Beautiful machine Rene !!
Eric

Stunning, Rene!

Best,
Fran

That is one awesome machine Rene! Congrates! I've got a question about it though, How long does it run on six springs? Seems a little over the top to me .

Rene,
That is an AWESOME machine, thanks for sharing it with all of us.

CONGRATULATIONS, from David & Lerria in Dallas