New to Forum

[Daddy-O]

Hello all

My name is Mark and I’m new to the forum. I have had an interest in gramophones (yes, I’m from Down Under) for many years. Anyway, I want to share an oddball machine in my modest collection. It is a Maxonola Grand from the mid-20s. The Maxonol Company was essentially a furniture manufacturer that got onto the gramophone bandwagon back in the day. The machine is distinctive in that the horn is on top enclosed by two leadlight doors. No doubt this was an attempt to differentiate the brand from the multitude of other competing companies.

It has a surprisingly smooth Garrard double spring motor which again is different from the usual Thorens motors typically found in many Australian-made machines. The gooseneck tone arm is positioned upside down, otherwise it is quite conventional. The performance can at best be described as mediocre (strangled might be a better description) but the quality of the fumed oak cabinetry is excellent. If nothing else, it does make a nice piece of furniture. The finish on the lid is quite worn but I will get around to restoring the cabinet one day (maybe).

Here is a movie advertising clip from 1925. It is a wonderful snapshot into the times. Note some of the monster machines with radios in the showroom.

https://aso.gov.au/titles/ads/maxonol-gramophone/clip1/

Sorry about the sideways pictures. They went that way when I added the files.

[emgcr]

Welcome to the forum Mark and thank you for the pictures. So many furniture manufacturers tried their hand at gramophone manufacture and the quality of the wooden casework was often very high indeed. However, as you suggest, the audio reproduction could be mediocre to say the least as a result of a lack of understanding of what was necessary. The inverted tonearm was used by others, notably EMG in their early High Holborn days---in that instance driving an open-air horizontal Wilson Panharmonic horn producing a most acceptable performance.

The advertising film is fascinating from many points of view. Thank you for sharing.

If you have a spare moment, it would be good to hear the "strangulated" sound !

[Josh Cattermole 1999]

That's a really cool looking machine and, as you say, a lovely piece of furniture. Thanks for sharing and welcome to the forum Yes, I'd love to hear the sound of it playing too. My 1922 ''off-brand'' picnic gramophone has poor quality too, so I'd like to hear others and see how it compares.

[fran604g]

Welcome to the forum! That's a very interesting machine. I'd love to see more photos, especially of the lid and horn with the doors open.

Best,
Fran

[epigramophone]

Welcome to the forum Mark. Your Maxonola appears to have been inspired by the Klingsor, a German machine which was made from 1907 until the 1920's in a wide range of styles and sizes.

The Klingsor's main feature of interest was the group of strings stretched across the horn mouth. It was claimed that when the strings vibrated during play, they enhanced the sound quality.

[nostalgia]

Welcome to the forum Great looking and interesting machine you have there too:)

[Marco Gilardetti]

Glad to read your message from Australia! And what an unusual machine you have there! If you have few minutes to take some other pictures, I'd be curious to see how the horn inside the doors looks like.

Thanks for the link to the movie too... I think I never saw a commercial for a gramophone before, I wonder how many reels survive.

[VanEpsFan1914]

Welcome to the Forum--that is a very interesting cabinet machine!

Have you rebuilt the reproducer and maybe checked the horn & tonearm for gaps where they may leak air? That may help some with the fidelity.

Never heard of a Maxonol before but this is a beautiful machine preserved well. Thanks for sharing it!

[gramophoneshane]

Hello Mark, and welcome to the TMF.

I love your Maxonola Grand!
It's only the second Maxonola I've seen in 40 yrs of collecting.
The first was an eBay offering over a decade ago, and it was a machine pictured in the film you posted.
I've included a screen shot of the machine below.

Maxonola certainly made some interesting machines judging by the film, and the fact they used imported oak (as opposed to silky oak) and Garrard motors is a sign they wanted to offer machines of above average quality.

It would be interesting to know just how many models the company offered. There appears to be machines of every style that was popular during the 20s in Australia, and there's even one in the by then outdated Federation style.
I particularly like your Jacobean revival style machine.

If you have a few hours to kill while we're still in isolation, you might want to search the Australian newspaper archives online.
I've had success in finding original advertising for almost all my machines, so a search for Maxonola Grand may well turn up some additional information about your machine, including original price, years it was offered, different finishes etc.
I always think it adds interest if you can have a printout of an ad showing the machine and its price etc, framed on the wall above the machine.

As for repairing the top of your cabinet, I'm not sure how much experience you've had with stains and refinishing, but you'll probably have to mix your own stain to get a good colour match.
I use Feast and Watson stains.
For the colour you need, I'd start with walnut stain as a base colour, and you can also get small 30ml bottles of stain which I buy black, and carefully add black to the walnut until a good match is achieved.
Probably a quarter of a can of walnut in a suitable container to add the black too is a good start, and should give you more than enough stain to use on your cabinet.
I've done the same to repair the finish on a Rexonola 35 and the results came out perfect.

And thanks again for posting the pictures of your Maxonola. I always enjoy seeing Aussie machines I haven't seen before.

[budsta]

Hi Mark

Welcome aboard.
I thought you'd find this record cleaner interesting.

Stephen