The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I picked this set up a couple of months ago and have been inspecting it. It has a very early electrostatic speaker (they called it "Kylectron") -- restoring that will take some doing, though an article in a 1993 issue of Antique Radio Classified very helpfully leads the way on that. The phonograph, though, is a mystery to me, and has some issues. It has an RCA pickup, but was apparently made by Allen-Hough. It's not a changer (as discussed in some other threads here), but it is acting quite odd. When engaged, it will not start spinning unless you give it a push. Once you do, it spins fine, but if you slow it down with a finger, it will stop again. Also, the tone arm is pot metal and has swelled; I can deal with that, but it is pretty heavy, yet swivels on a lone ⅛" post, rather than ball bearings. And as of yet I can't seem to get the spindle cap off. Note the picture of the motor -- it's surprisingly small. It's a beautiful machine and I intend to restore it completely, but I could use some guidance on the phonograph. If anyone has any experience with these, or information about them, please let me know. And if you happen to have the Rider's phonograph volume, I'd love to hear from you!

The pickup and arm appears to be from Brunswick, have never seen a pickup with that RCA plate.

Allen-Hough made a changer in the late twenty's that was used by Zenith in the Model 75 and Columbia in their Model 990, lots of pot metal, I've never seen one operational. They made another model in late thirty's for a juke box that is nickel plated and no pot medal but parts are not interchangeable with the early one.

The motor could have a shorted winding or it is like the flat motor RCA used in the small R-xx series that had to be started with a push.

Are the legs cut short? Looks like it should be higher.


Chuck

Chuck, curious as to which jukebox that was. Can you perhaps steer me to a link? Cheers, Russie

ChuckA wrote:The pickup and arm appears to be from Brunswick, have never seen a pickup with that RCA plate.

Allen-Hough made a changer in the late twenty's that was used by Zenith in the Model 75 and Columbia in their Model 990, lots of pot metal, I've never seen one operational. They made another model in late thirty's for a juke box that is nickel plated and no pot medal but parts are not interchangeable with the early one.

The motor could have a shorted winding or it is like the flat motor RCA used in the small R-xx series that had to be started with a push.

Are the legs cut short? Looks like it should be higher.

Interesting about the tone arm and pickup -- do you have a picture of a Brunswick? I wonder if RCA would have made that for them; they were already supplying Radiolas for Panatropes.

Can you please tell me more about those flat RCA motors? Any chance you have a picture of one? Can you give me a couple of model numbers in the R-xx series?

The cabinet is complete -- it's almost 5 feet tall: https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/united10_20.html

Here's another picture of the motor -- it's a sealed unit, with eight rivets. The phonograph does have its own power switch, so I guess I would be surprised if you had to start the turntable with a push, as has been suggested. It does keep running at perfect speed once it is started. I wonder if there is any way to tell for sure?

I also hope to be able to restore the Kylectron speaker. Daniel Schoo wrote about it in ARC back in 1993, and I'd like to find out how his restoration held up, and if he's had any new insights since then. Does anyone know how to get in touch with him?