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This was an eBay auction that ended at nearly 3000.00$
Upon looking at the photos, there is clearly something wrong with the position of the tonearm being too close to the turntable.

There are some other holes on the back bracket mounting plate, but that doesn't mean to say there are other holes in the cabinet that would raise it up.

Is this a marriage of the wrong bits, what's going on here ?
Nice machine, but the back bracket is clearly mounted to low, and why would that be ?

A tonearm and back bracket from a Victor II was meant to be here ?

It has the wrong reproducer on it. A smaller diameter Concert reproducer will lower the U-tube and put the needle at the correct angle. My M had the same issue. I noticed on the tone arm, where the reproducer usually rests, a small "waffle" pattern embossed in the arm. When an Exhibition has been resting against the arm for 100 years, there's usually a small indent, from the edge of the Exhibition being lowered onto the arm a thousand times. When a Concert reproducer is used, the knurl on the outside of the Concert imparts a telltale "waffle" pattern. Once I placed a Concert on my M, all was well!

Thanks, I did contact the seller, after the fact, I doubt I'll hear from him, but if I do, I'll post what he said.

It would be better to post any Ebay listings in our Ebay section along with a corresponding link and pics for posterity. Once it's removed from Ebay it's lost here on our forum as well.

Jeff,

Since you didn't wait for the seller to respond to the question you asked him just an hour and a half ago (and that he received while he was ferrying packages to Fedex and unfortunately not in an ideal position to get back with you), the seller will respond here. The problem is not the tonearm, and it's not the reproducer. The problem is the brass sleeve inside the reproducer's rubber mounting flange. The alignment/bayonet pin was bent, and the brass sleeve had slipped inside the flange. This changed the tracking angle of the reproducer, causing the U-Tube and tonearm to descend closer to the turntable. Although I didn't notice this when I photographed the machine, I did notice it this morning when I was packing the machine up for shipment, and I replaced the flange. The reproducer is now tracking at the correct angle, and the arm is at the correct height above the turntable. By the way, an Exhibition reproducer is correct for a 1904 Monarch with a native rear mount, and there were no "waffle" marks on the tonearm from decades of banging by a knurled Concert reproducer.

-- Grant

I'd love to see that cabinet with the back bracket and mounting plate removed. If it's all original and the plate has two levels of mounting holes I would also expect the cabinet to have corresponding holes.

Jerry B.

Jerry,

There was only one set of holes on the cabinet (drilled for a Taper Arm), and -- as you can see in the pics -- there are 2 sets of holes on the mounting plate -- one for a Rigid Arm, one for a Taper Arm. I'm pretty sure the mounting plate was original to the phonograph, and I don't see why it wouldn't be. I suspect that Victor, like Edison, used up viable parts until they were gone.

- Grant

There was only one set of holes on the cabinet (drilled for a Taper Arm), and -- as you can see in the pics -- there are 2 sets of holes on the mounting plate -- one for a Rigid Arm, one for a Taper Arm. I'm pretty sure the mounting plate was original to the phonograph, and I don't see why it wouldn't be. I suspect that Victor, like Edison, used up viable parts until they were gone.

- Grant

Makes sense. Thanks, Jerry

JeffR1 wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 3:49 pm Thanks, I did contact the seller, after the fact, I doubt I'll hear from him, but if I do, I'll post what he said.

Why wouldn’t you expect to hear from him? He’s been selling on eBay for 25 years, has an unblemished record, and is known all over the world as a reputable, responsible seller. Even though emails travel at the speed of light, humans don’t and we all need to keep that in mind when it comes to eliciting responses.

Raphael

Raphael wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 9:08 pm

JeffR1 wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 3:49 pm Thanks, I did contact the seller, after the fact, I doubt I'll hear from him, but if I do, I'll post what he said.

Why wouldn’t you expect to hear from him? He’s been selling on eBay for 25 years, has an unblemished record, and is known all over the world as a reputable, responsible seller. Even though emails travel at the speed of light, humans don’t and we all need to keep that in mind when it comes to eliciting responses.

Raphael

I don't know who he is, people can say anything they want on eBay as many people do, but you're making this into something that isn't, I haven't been hear that long.
I'll give him that he does have 100% feedback, my bad, that is no easy feat to achieve as seller for 25 years.

It was never about making anyone look bad, although I can see where it would seem that way, I just wanted to put this out here on the forum, because I never did expect an answer from Grant, given the fact it was after the sale, I wasn't insinuating that he was being dishonest.

Many people don't answer my questions because I'm from Canada, I couldn't even contact him because I have a Canadian address, Grant has it set up like that, so I had to change my primary address just to get in touch _ so I didn't expect an answer from him.

Grant, for someone that has 25 years in the business, you won't ship to Canada, why is Don able to ship anywhere in the world and you can't ?
Even Raphael can ship anywhere in the world.
I just bought a horn from Don, he ships them in these nice round containers.
If someone wants something bad enough, they will pay and wait, it would be nice to have that option.

I still have a question Grant, your post about the alignment pin doesn't make sense, even if you were to correct that problem, the goose neck will still not be in line with the tonearm, what machines I have are, I'll take a photo of that when I can. (I literally can't right now)
Correcting the alignment pin will make that problem even worse and raise the U-Tube even more, this will even create a new problem where the sound will have a very small area to flow as the higher the Y-Tube becomes in relation to the tonearm.
How is changing the alignment pin and correcting the angle of the reproducer going to raise the tonearm, the tone arm is too close to the turntable, at least that is what it looks like from the photo's ?
In order to correct that, the tone arm will have to be raised by literally raising the back bracket.
Maybe I'm just missing something in your post ?

I will apologize to you Grant, seems we started off on the wrong foot, at least it seems that way.