The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I recently found a couple of Columbia Lyric reproducers that are different than the commonly found style.

The most common Lyric looks like this: They have a large font REPRODUCER stamp, a serial number and 2 patent dates on the body.
The needle force is from the spring tension pulling the needle bar assembly at the rear.

The earliest style was the weighted version that was short lived and usually found on early serial number BE, BF, & BG machines.
They have a small font REPRODUCER stamp and 4 patent dates and no serial number on the body. The ones I recently found are spring loaded but the the spring is located at the front. The body of this reproducer is the same as the one used on the weighted version, the text size and patent dates are also the same.

I can't seem to find any information or pictures of this version, does anyone have any info? Anyone have a machine that came with one of
these versions on it. Were these a very short lived version that was put out when Columbia couldn't use the weighted model any longer?

Chuck

Sorry I haven’t seen this post earlier. While I don’t have much additional info regarding this variation of the Lyric reproducer, I found mine on a Columbia BF (serial no. 6619) a few years ago. Since the plating on this reproducer seemed somewhat brighter/shinier than the plating found on my other reproducers, I always regarded it as possibly being of recent vintage. Plays great though!

phonopal wrote: Wed Sep 04, 2024 3:50 pm Sorry I haven’t seen this post earlier. While I don’t have much additional info regarding this variation of the Lyric reproducer, I found mine on a Columbia BF (serial no. 6619) a few years ago. Since the plating on this reproducer seemed somewhat brighter/shinier than the plating found on my other reproducers, I always regarded it as possibly being of recent vintage. Plays great though!

Considering your BF is early, I read somewhere that the BF's started at serial #5001, so maybe this style is an interim model. I guess until more show up, it's as good a guess
as any.

Chuck

Chuck, your theory might be right, for Howard Hazelcorn does mention in his Columbia Phonograph Companion guide that the BF was originally fitted with the weighted Lyric (back in 1905), yet that this reproducer « was quickly replaced with the #12 (T-3) spring-contact Lyric ». It does appear that none of the Columbia phonographs introduced in 1906 were fitted with the weighted Lyric. An early variation of the spring-contact Lyric could therefore very well have been introduced sometime between mid-1905 and early 1906.

I looked at an early BE sn#1212 and BF sn#5550 I have and both came with weighted style reproducers. I would guess that those in between spring Lyric reproducers
were short lived.

Chuck

My BE, sn# 75, has the weighted style.

The weighted Lyric was the first style, introduced in 1905. It was very close to being a clone of Edison's Automatic, model B and model C floating weight reproducers and Columbia had to do a quick redesign when Edison's legal department found learned about it.