The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I picked up a Fireside project a few days ago. It has been in the same family since new. One of the first things I noticed was the Cygnet horn was missing its crane suspension. When I cleaned and polished the black Cygnet I noticed some gold trim paint between each panel. That made me wonder if it was an early Cygnet that had the rigid suspension between the horn and crane. When I removed the cast Cygnet bracket from the cabinet for cleaning these small pieces of wood fell to the work bench. Those brackets are shaped to catch more than dust. Once I found an early Mercury dime in a similar bracket. My question.. Were these small uniform pieces of wood shims to adjust the Cygnet horn assembly? I know the rigid suspension Cygnets were difficult to adjust and the spring suspension was a big improvement. Or... Was this just a convenient place for these pieces of wood to be placed. Has anyone else seen something similar? I will keep them with the machine.

Thanks, Jerry B.

Being that those wood shim pieces are so uniform and intentionally shaped, it seems reasonable to assume that they were spacers placed there for a specific purpose...

Ebony?...

bob stutz

Might not be related to the phonograph at all, thy all look the same I wondered if they were game pieces like cribbage board pegs.