The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I bought a late model Standard Model A at a local auction in extremely dilapidated state, this about a year ago. In addition to mud wasp homes, the top veneer was badly blistered in two positions, locations indicated by the red ellipses. I split them down their axes with an Xacto knife, cleaned out any residual hide glue, reapplied new glue, and clamped (or cramped, if you prefer). Here are before and after photos.

Now photos of the entire machine. Horn did not come with machine. That is curtesy of my brother who got it somewhere near Buffalo. It is too large, and simply the wrong horn for this machine. Some parts of the motor were inside the case, including the crank. I find it a pain to adjust the brake and speed control. On Columbias these two operations are coupled; both operate on the governor. Not so for Victors: the brake stops the rotation of the platter, and the speed control regulates the governor speed. Much easier to adjust.

Anyway, thought people might like to see it. (Sorry about the pictures being upside-down. I will fix later. Requires a coordinate rotation.)

Actually, the horn looks good on the machine. The horn and machine are from the same era, around 1913-15. Columbia imported these horns for their late out side horn machines. Even though you got this horn from your brother, this would have been an upgrade back in the day. You did a great job restoring this machine.
Harvey Kravitz