The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I am restoring an Electrola 7-26 and it's going very well. The radiola 18 was easy, and it sounds great. I am a novice on the phonograph, though. I need to replace the tonearm wire that feeds the pickup head. Where do I find that? Am I limited to using only that thread-type wire?

The wire is known as "tinsel cord". It has the necessary flexibility for this application. You can just buy a receiver cord and remove the outer jacket.

This is a good place to buy these products:

https://www.oldphoneworks.com/cloth-cov ... tyles.html

Tinsel cord, huh? I knew it had to have a specific name. Thanks!

Every once in a while, I see that cord at a Radio Show. It is a very flexible and durable conductor used on early telephone sets and as the leads on early speakers. The ones at the Radio shows sometimes have the outer braided covering worn somewhat, but if you peel that away, there are two perfectly good conductors left which serve the purpose well as pick up leads.
The hard part is soldering the ends. My method is to clean the conductor as well as possible, then wrap it with a strand of non-insulated fine wire (I rob that from some modern multi-strand wire). Then apply solder and you have an easy to solder to end.
Alternate to that, and if you don't mind the wire not being original looking, you can get shielded phono pick up lead from Allied and other electronics supply outlets.