The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hello all,

I bought a model D Standard and went about 'upgrading' it to a horizontal carriage set up with a diamond B reproducer and an adapter for the Model C reproducer I have. When I play the two minute recordings everything plays fine. But with some of the blue amberols and most of the four minute indestructibles, the Diamond B seems to have good sound just before the carriage is completely engaged, meaning . However, some of the blue amberols sound perfectly fine.

I have the carriage adjusted to that it is engaging the feed screw just so it engages without bogging down.

Any help would greatly be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

I'm not sure I understand what your issue is. Can you clarify the problem?

Thanks! Cliff

When I lower the carriage and reproducer down onto a blue Amberol or 4 minute indestructible the sound seems to become deadened or it comes and goes. It happens on some blue Amberols and most 4 minute indestructible, but others sound fine.

This is a case where posting videos might help diagnose the problem. Do you have a YouTube account or anything?

BTW, whereabouts in CT are you?

-Bill

My initial suspicion is that the stylus on your Diamond B is worn. Indestructibles are prone to shrinkage; your stylus may not be getting to the bottom of the groove well. The fact that you have no issue with the Model C tells me that it's not your machine.

A reproducer on any Edison needs freedom to move vertically as well as horizontally. It could be that you don't have enough side to side freedom. You might play with the screw at the top end of the reproducer.

Jerry Blais

The Diamond B reproducer is a rebuilt one from George Vollema at Great Lakes Antique Phonograph so I don’t think it could be an issue with the stylus. It may be an issue with the records themselves. Some of them are out of round to varying degrees.

VictorVV-X wrote:The Diamond B reproducer is a rebuilt one from George Vollema at Great Lakes Antique Phonograph so I don’t think it could be an issue with the stylus. It may be an issue with the records themselves. Some of them are out of round to varying degrees.

If you could get hold of (or even borrow) a good H reproducer, you could double-check by trying that with the reducer ring. If the cylinders are particularly out of round, the problem should show up there.

- Bill

I do have a model H reproducer but I did not think to try it in the horizontal carriage. I’ll give it a try and report back.

Thanks for all the help.

The photo below shows the angle that a Model C or H needle should be with respect to the record. I've compared four of those and they all seem to be about the same, except one which has a little more angle favoring the needle end, of the needle bar. All of the those play fine on all the records I tried. None of these were mounted in a horizontal carriage, but the angle should be the same nonetheless.

If your H needle does not look like this when resting on a record, you can adjust the angle of the bar by tweeking the length of the link between the end of the needle bar and center eye of the diaphragm.

Hopefully this will help you. Cheers, Russie.