The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

A few months ago, I bought a Victrola Alhambra I (see attached pictures below), thinking that the better treble response of the straight horns used in some of the early Orthophonics might be more of an advantage for me than the better bass response of the larger models, as anything louder than an extra-soft tone needle is too loud for my rather small room, and these already tend to sound somewhat muffled—Unfortunately, it has a few problems (listed below), so I decided that perhaps I ought to join this forum, which I had already been using passively for some time, and start asking for advice, rather than just letting a potentially-useable Victrola sit and collect dust for the rest of my life.
(A slight word of warning—This post is somewhat long; I meant to have the phonograph repaired shortly after buying it, but then I became rather busy finishing my senior year of high school—by the end of which, the questions had accumulated a little.)

Problem the first—The motor clunks. I haven’t played it very much since investigating it prior to purchasing, but I would estimate that it has clunked loudly about ten or twenty times (there was a very noisy heater in the store where I bought it, so it was hard to tell whether it clunked or not while there). I had intended to save up some of my allowance to have the motor serviced, but that was before Covid-19 made its presence known; is anyone still accepting motor repairs, especially through the mail? Also, as I plan to use this machine (or a semi-homemade E.M.G.-type phonograph using its motor) regularly, should I ask that the springs be replaced, rather than merely re-greased, considering the number of times that they have clunked? (Assuming that I can send it out to be repaired.)

Problem the second—The pot metal soundbox is in the typical, slightly-crumbly state; the front looks mostly fine, apart from two small cracks at the rim, but the locking ring is broken in several places and the back plate has a few deep cracks and is bulging somewhat—Again, I had initially intended to save up and have it repaired (specifically, I was hoping that I could save enough to send it to Wyatt Markus); is anyone still repairing Orthophonic soundboxes?—Or is the soundbox beyond repair? (See attached pictures below.)

Problem the third—The radio is entirely missing, which is a fairly minor problem for me, as I am more interested in the phonograph part; but, for semi-originality, it would be nice to have a correct radio in it—Does anyone know roughly how hard it would be to find the correct radio, and how much it would likely cost?

Problem the fourth—The tone-arm holds the soundbox at an angle over the record—when the soundbox (rather, a professionally-repaired soundbox that I also own, from a VV2-55) is lowered onto a record, using a standard-length needle, it is tilted over slightly onto its face—At the suggestion of Walt Sommers, with whom I was communicating for a while, I conducted a thorough investigation of the playing compartment, but the motor-board, tone-arm mounting-board, tone-arm, and turntable all appear to be correctly installed—Has anyone else ever experienced a similar problem with the early, jointed Orthophonic tone-arms? I wondered if the two pieces of the tone-arm were joined at slightly the wrong angle, in which case, presumably, the ring that holds the crook in place would be slightly too high; does anyone happen to know the correct distance between this ring and the turntable? The front of the ring appears to be about 1 ⅛ inches above the turntable on mine, although manoeuvering the tape measure was rather tricky, so the actual distance might be slightly different.

Alternatively, could the problem have to do with the crook, not the main part of the tone-arm? When I remove it and look at it directly from the side, with a soundbox in place, the crook looks slightly—er—well—crooked; see pictures below.
Another possible problem with the machine is that the valve that switches from radio to phonograph reproduction does not quite line up with the metal casing; looking through the tone-arm hole in the mounting board, with the switch in the “Victrola” position, the valve appears to be shifted about a sixteenth of an in to the left of where it ought to be to line up with the rest of the horn conduit—Will this affect the frequency response of the machine? It sounds rather flat and muffled to me, compared to 150 Hz. cardboard exponential horn than I have been using for over half a year in conjunction with the VV2-55’s soundbox and tone-arm; but that could be due to fact that the cardboard horn just happens to have a frequency response with a strong treble peak that makes up for the soft-tone needles’ poorer treble response, whereas the Alhambra horn’s response is fairly flat.
Also, should the horn be sealed? I have read a few posts on this forum saying that sealing can make a surprising difference even on such a small horn, but its mouth appears to be nailed into the cabinet, which would make sealing a rather tricky business.

And, finally, one last question—Have any other owners of Alhambras noticed that the lids, when being lifted, seem to stick part-way, then move the rest of the way with a cabinet-shaking jerk, as the support hits the end of its track?—If anyone has noticed this problem, is it just a clumsy design that has to be tolerated or worked around, or might some sort of oil or grease in the track help?

Thank you for any advice you may have to offer,

Ethan

Looks likely that the problem is the decomposed isolator. This should be removed from the tone arm and silicone-glued into the reproducer or better yet,replaced. Air leaks at this and other tone arm joints really weaken reproduction of the lower frequencies.

wjw wrote:Looks likely that the problem is the decomposed isolator.

The the rubber isolator is definitely one of the problems with that soundbox. However, to clarify, the photos showing the "tilt" were taken with a different (properly restored) Orthophonic soundbox in place.

1. Your springs need to be regreased. I wouldn't replace them unless they also showed some weakness by not playing through at least a few sides.

2. The crumbly reproducer is most likely a good parts donor. The diaphragm can maybe be salvaged. I believe most, if not all, rebuilders are still doing business via mail, (motors too I would assume).

3. Can't help you here.

4. I wouldn't worry one bit about the slant. If what your pictures seem to show is really the case, while your reproducer is in fact slanting, your needle appears to be straight and perpendicular to the record surface, which is the goal anyway.

5. Are your lid supports the style using the dashpot cylinder, (like Credenzas), or a spring tension style? If they are the dashpots, they need to be cleaned, lubricated & adjusted. There are some good YouTube videos of that process.

I was able to find a correct, but incomplete, radio on Ebay from a local seller. I found the guy selling parts, then asked about the radio, which was not listed for sale. I just put some junk tubes in mine to make it look better. I am missing a couple trim pieces, but it is better that looking at the wall through the opening (I have no back on mine), but I can easily replace the wood. Mine sounds surprisingly good with a nice reproducer.

Hi Eathan:

In answer to your questions about the horn used in the Alhambra 1, it is the same style horn -- the Western Electric straight exponential horn -- fitted into the Consolette, the Colony, the early Granada, etc. As such, it is pretty straightforward in design, and normally does not suffer from the air leaks due to shrinkage, warping, etc. that is seen in the larger folded Orthophonic horns.

I've marked areas with arrows in the following image culled from the internet to show you where possible air leaks could occur--mostly where slats used to construct the horn were fitted together, the seams where the parts are joined, and where the wooden horn, itself, is attached to the iron components -- I can see from the photo you posted that the earlier style tonearm support base was used. To ensure that this area is air tight, all you have to do is remove the tonearm base, remove the metal stop plate, and pack the thick felt washer with fresh grease, and reassemble.

As for the sound quality of the horn, according to "Look for the Dog" by Robert Baumbach, the range of the six foot folded Credenza horn is about 5,000 to 100 cycles per second/Hz, while the Consolette (which had the same horn as the Alhambra 1) could reproduce a bass note half that frequency. (Whether this means 200 cps/Hz, I don't know.)

OrthoFan

@ JerryVan, because it clunks, I haven’t wanted to try to wind the motor fully, in case the springs break—I have a VV2-55 that I bought on Ebay a little over a year ago; when I first got it, the spring clunked, but I read somewhere that clunking can sometimes be fixed just by use, if the grease isn’t actually hardened, so I didn’t have it repaired, and the spring broke while winding it one day, so now I’m rather wary of winding a not-yet-serviced motor enough to make it clunk while playing. If it would help to estimate the cost of repairs, I can wind it up all the way and see how many sides I can get through before it starts to slow down, but if there isn’t any benefit to winding it up, I’d rather just leave it alone until it’s working properly again.

I was guessing that the soundbox was beyond complete rebuilding, due to the depth of the cracks in the back, but might still have some salvageable parts—Does anyone have a rough idea of much it should cost to have the soundbox “rebuilt,” if new back and front plates, locking ring, and possibly needle-bar (thinner needles, which are mostly what I use, tend to sit crooked in the needle chuck) are needed?

It’s hard to see in my first pictures, but the needle does also slant at the same angle as the soundbox; I have attached another picture, this time with a small Lego beside the needle for reference.
The lid supports use tension springs—see the second picture, below, showing the partially-removed support mechanism.

@ OrthoFan, the horn construction does look fairly simple—I’ve already taken off the back panel and investigated a bit—so if I can get it out, re-sealing shouldn’t be too hard; but because it’s nailed in, I can’t remove it or access all of the screws that need to come out to remove the metal portions. Are the nails typical for the straight-horned Orthophonics, and if they are, do you know of an easy way to remove them? Or should I just assume that re-sealing such a small, simple horn will have too minimal an effect to warrant nail-removal?

Also, 200 Hz. sounds about right for the lower limit; when I measured the interior width and height of the horn at various points along its length and plotted the radii of the circular cross-sectioned horn with equivalent cross-sectional areas, the points corresponded roughly to the equation for an approximately 218 Hz. horn

Ethan,

As for the motor, best then to send it out to have the springs serviced, unless you want to try it yourself. Thumping springs will not improve with use.

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful on the other topics...

Ethan wrote: @ OrthoFan, .... Are the nails typical for the straight-horned Orthophonics, and if they are, do you know of an easy way to remove them? Or should I just assume that re-sealing such a small, simple horn will have too minimal an effect to warrant nail-removal?

...

Personally, I'd leave everything in place, if there appears to be no warping, and if the wood looks to be in good condition.

OrthoFan

Hello Ethan,

This is a little off topic but if you want another barrel for your 2-55 let me know; I have one that I re-filled with a fresh mainspring a few years ago & it still runs smoothly.