The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

My Amberola 30 sounds great…….. for the 3 or 4 seconds that it plays before repeating the same part of the Cylinder over and over again. I don’t know how to fix this and am requesting help from this forum

Your machine has a half nut which engages the feet screw and moves the carriage, which holds the reproducer, across the record. The groves in the cylinder do not move the entire assembly across the record. So if your carriage is not engaging the feed screw the result is a repetition of a few groves. The half nut needs to be adjusted to engage the feed screw which will move the carriage. Send me a private message (PM) with a phone number and a good time to call you. It's really quite simple. Really!

Jerry B.

Enderobot wrote: Sat Jul 16, 2022 11:16 pm My Amberola 30 sounds great…….. for the 3 or 4 seconds that it plays before repeating the same part of the Cylinder over and over again. I don’t know how to fix this and am requesting help from this forum

I was in your position 6 years ago when I really started getting into wind ups and my first cylinder machine was my 30.

As Jerry said, check your Half nut I’ve taken a picture of mine and circled it. You may have to adjust the screw for the pressure.

Also make sure your horn is being supported by the spring too, and it moves freely back and forth. This part was a pain in the butt to get right in my experience.

Where are you located? Maybe a member of this Forum is nearby and can help.

Enderobot wrote: Sat Jul 16, 2022 11:16 pm My Amberola 30 sounds great…….. for the 3 or 4 seconds that it plays before repeating the same part of the Cylinder over and over again. I don’t know how to fix this

As mentioned in prior comments, it sure sounds like your threaded half nut which needs to contact the threaded feed screw to drive the carriage (and play your cylinder) is not making sufficient contact with the feed screw when you lower the carriage. It's a very simple adjustment for most of us here on the Forum but when you're new at collecting and making Amberola 30 adjustments you might watch this video that Brett posted a while back regarding adjustment of the Amberola 30 half nut: [YouTube]https://youtu.be/rsf1Oqjr_F0[/YouTube] The Amberola 50 and 75 would be the same adjustment.

Also, for what it's worth, make SURE that the skipping problem is not your cylinder. If you have a hung groove on a cylinder it will also cause skipping for several seconds but the difference is that the skipping will pass if the half nut adjustment is correct.

Doug

Also check that the reproducer isn't too tight into the horn. That can cause a lot of drag on the mechanism.