My first Japan import, a red Columbia G-241
Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2023 3:56 am
I finally could not resist it, I imported a red Columbia G-241 from Japan. 
The last Columbia model to be released from the Nippon Columbia factory, in 1951, according to the Kanazawa Phonograph Museum in Japan. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... C00872.jpg
We can see the Nippon Columbia were using the Plano-Reflex arm to the very end and we can also see some other interesting things, for instance how they have changed the manual brake. It is a heavy horse, with a 2 spring motor too. They are pretty hard to find in decent conditions, most of them are rusty or torn, but this machine looked excellent, and that's why I could not resist it. It is always an excitement of course when importing a gramophone, how they are packed in particular, and I upload photos, so you can see how this machine was packed. It was far beyond expectations, where the bubble wrapped machine was safely put into a cradle of foam where it could not at all move around in the box.
You of course wonder about the price. I paid 220 Euro for it, but of course shipping and import tax is added, and without yet having received the import tax bill, the total will be around 400-450 euro. (The shipping alone was 120 Euro). Still, a colored HMV in good condition is expensive to buy, and I for two years now wanted a red portable to lighten up my sitting room, so I took the opportunity. Spoiled as I am with gramophone prices, this will actually be the most expensive machine I have bought to date, it may sound strange, knowing I have a HMV 163 and quite some horn machines in my possession, but it is still the truth. Still, I am very happy with the outcome, really. And, buying a good looking colored HMV 102 at current market price, would probably have cost me about the same, if I had lived in the UK.
By the way, is this a Garrard motor, or were these motors also manufactured in Japan?
I upload quite some photos for you to see, since we have, at least for now, lost so many photos on the forum, also of these Japan made Columbia portables.
The last Columbia model to be released from the Nippon Columbia factory, in 1951, according to the Kanazawa Phonograph Museum in Japan. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... C00872.jpg
We can see the Nippon Columbia were using the Plano-Reflex arm to the very end and we can also see some other interesting things, for instance how they have changed the manual brake. It is a heavy horse, with a 2 spring motor too. They are pretty hard to find in decent conditions, most of them are rusty or torn, but this machine looked excellent, and that's why I could not resist it. It is always an excitement of course when importing a gramophone, how they are packed in particular, and I upload photos, so you can see how this machine was packed. It was far beyond expectations, where the bubble wrapped machine was safely put into a cradle of foam where it could not at all move around in the box.
You of course wonder about the price. I paid 220 Euro for it, but of course shipping and import tax is added, and without yet having received the import tax bill, the total will be around 400-450 euro. (The shipping alone was 120 Euro). Still, a colored HMV in good condition is expensive to buy, and I for two years now wanted a red portable to lighten up my sitting room, so I took the opportunity. Spoiled as I am with gramophone prices, this will actually be the most expensive machine I have bought to date, it may sound strange, knowing I have a HMV 163 and quite some horn machines in my possession, but it is still the truth. Still, I am very happy with the outcome, really. And, buying a good looking colored HMV 102 at current market price, would probably have cost me about the same, if I had lived in the UK.
By the way, is this a Garrard motor, or were these motors also manufactured in Japan?
I upload quite some photos for you to see, since we have, at least for now, lost so many photos on the forum, also of these Japan made Columbia portables.