The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Does anyone in the UK make repro wool gaskets for the HMV 5a/5b? Or should I get some stiff wool sheets and cut my own?

Wyatt

Replacing them with thin flat rubber gaskets gives excellent results. I also once cut ones on felt, but they weren't so good.

Somewhat OT, but I'm reading The Library, by Stuart Kells. He talks about a famous book collector who also collected old cars. His 1929 Bugatti kept blowing a certain gasket, and he couldn't find anything that would last - until he made a gasket from a piece of water-stained parchment, and it worked perfectly. After that, whenever someone asked him how old the car was, he'd reply, "Parts of it date to the 15th century."

I sometimes turn around for fairly common solutions to keep machines working. In principle, against 'proper Pure original restoration' technics, I tend to look for modern materials to substitute the older ones, if possible. Kind of feeling for trying to make the machines survive in modern times and in the future, searching for current materials, nothing too special, if possible. Three of my no.4 hmv soundboxes are fitted with back isolators newly self-made of silicone, using the brass ring and the soundbox backplate as a mold. They aren't original no more, but give excellent results, compliant, resistant, and airtight. The sound is superbe !
I do as I believe the original owner would have done if he wanted to repair his Gramophone today... Except that I'd never take out the motorboard and install a modern turntable instead!