The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I recently purchased this little RCA phonograph off eBay. I have seen many of them listed in the past and was curious about them so I went ahead and bought this one seeing that it was in pretty good shape to begin with. The seller lived in Cleveland, Ohio so I happened to be going through there shortly after purchasing it and I picked it up eliminating the necessity to ship it and possible damage. After getting it home I took out the amplifier and sent it to Chuck Azzalina for restoration. After getting it back from him, I installed it but needed to attend to the turntable mechanics being that it was 63 years old, the little rubber tires that drove the turntable were dried out and had flat spots causing an erratic operation. I used a tool post grinder on a lathe to "freshen up the surfaces of the rubber tires and removing the flat spots. It worked quite well. I didn't have to remove much material to accomplish this so it didn't noticeably affect the speed at all. I was ready to fire this thing up and test it out but discovered I was missing the needle so I went to searching for the needle to this thing. I found one on ebay of course and had to wait another week before I could find out how this thing played! Finally the day arrived when it came so I went and immediately installed it. Fired up the unit. Put on an old 78 from the fifties (Abba Dabba Honeymoon-Debbie Reynolds and Charlton Carpenter) I have to admit I wasn't expecting much performance wise from this flimsy little phonograph from the 50"s but when I heard it for the first time I was very impressed with how good it sounded! I have been playing many of my 78's from the 20's-30' and without a doubt it out performs my Edison C-2. Now I will have a phonograph that will play 78's,45's, and LP's. Thanks Chuck for doing a terrific job on the Amp! Now I will be starting to collect 45' and LP's and I can blame Chuck when my wife hollers at me for adding to the clutter of an already congested basement!LOL

edisonclassm wrote:I recently purchased this little RCA phonograph off eBay. I have seen many of them listed in the past and was curious about them so I went ahead and bought this one seeing that it was in pretty good shape to begin with. The seller lived in Cleveland, Ohio so I happened to be going through there shortly after purchasing it and I picked it up eliminating the necessity to ship it and possible damage. After getting it home I took out the amplifier and sent it to Chuck Azzalina for restoration. After getting it back from him, I installed it but needed to attend to the turntable mechanics being that it was 63 years old, the little rubber tires that drove the turntable were dried out and had flat spots causing an erratic operation. I used a tool post grinder on a lathe to "freshen up the surfaces of the rubber tires and removing the flat spots. It worked quite well. I didn't have to remove much material to accomplish this so it didn't noticeably affect the speed at all. I was ready to fire this thing up and test it out but discovered I was missing the needle so I went to searching for the needle to this thing. I found one on ebay of course and had to wait another week before I could find out how this thing played! Finally the day arrived when it came so I went and immediately installed it. Fired up the unit. Put on an old 78 from the fifties (Abba Dabba Honeymoon-Debbie Reynolds and Charlton Carpenter) I have to admit I wasn't expecting much performance wise from this flimsy little phonograph from the 50"s but when I heard it for the first time I was very impressed with how good it sounded! I have been playing many of my 78's from the 20's-30' and without a doubt it out performs my Edison C-2. Now I will have a phonograph that will play 78's,45's, and LP's. Thanks Chuck for doing a terrific job on the Amp! Now I will be starting to collect 45' and LP's and I can blame Chuck when my wife hollers at me for adding to the clutter of an already congested basement!LOL

Is this an RCA Victor SHF-8? Be careful with the speed selector switch because of brittle plastic. I haven’t been able to change the speeds on my SHF-7 since the speed selector broke on mine.

This unit is a 7-HF-5

One of these has been on my local Craigslist for some time now. I like the mid-century modern lines on this, but I also know that all these RCA players need to be recapped (at a minimum) and all the idler and cam wheels serviced, and that adds up. I'm glad you're happy with yours and that it turned out well.

Hey, it's an "Orthophonic"---says so right there on the grill cloth! How could you go wrong? And how about those stylish late-'50s-early-60s legs on that baby?

Not bad at all. You have a winner there!

Pretty cool, I like it!

Best,
Fran

edisonclassm wrote:This unit is a 7-HF-5

Oh. So I guess it’s an earlier version of the SHF-8? I should have known since the “New Orthophonic High Fidelity” badge was on the grill and not the lid. By the way, does it have the external speaker switch and jack to hook up to an early 2-track stereo reel to reel tape machine?

My parents bought one of these new. They were married in 1955. I remember it being in the living room and then became mine sometime in the early 1970's. I remember playing with it for years. Brings back a lot of memories.

Here are a few more photos

edisonclassm wrote:Here are a few more photos

Manufactured the 26th week of 1956! (late June 1956) Just when stereo tape machines were coming out. Stereo wasn’t on records until 1958!