The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I’ve been working on restoring my Standard A and decided to tackle the reproducer last. This morning I noticed that something was inside it so I got the tweezers and…

When I bought my Opera the reproducer was clearly in need of attention, so I took it to Paul Morris.
This what he found when, after a struggle, he opened it up :

i didn't know there could be bugs in it

In the era before electronics, these were the somewhat uncommon buzz-tone soundbox modifications.

It is said that 60s Rock musicians, listening as children to buzz-tone modified gramophones, were inspired by the work of earlier stringed instrument players such as Roy Smeck.

Dave Davies of the KInks is said to have taken a razor blade to his speaker cones to get that classic buzz-tone sound he so loved as a child.

phonograph guy3435 wrote: Sat Jan 06, 2024 9:16 am i didn't know there could be bugs in it

There have been cases of moths and even cockroaches in reproducers.

Larval exuviae haunting the tone arm.

Phonograph horns were the equivalent of indoor Venus Flytraps - "They fly in, but they don't fly out..."

Here's what greeted me one day while I was removing an Aretino motor (toothbrush for scale):
...And here's what it looked like when my face was about 8 inches away:
I jumped out of my skin! The machine came from Florida. Just one reason why I'd never live there...

George P.

Without seeing the corpses' thorax, I can't be certain, but it looks like a Rabidosa rabida, also known as the rabid wolf spider. It's a species of spiders from the family Lycosidae, native to North America. You don't need to be in Florida to find them and they are basically harmless and non-poisonous. In the United States it is found from Maine to Florida and west to Texas.

They are large, scary looking and fast moving. Known to clean bugs from talking machines.

Thanks Curt. I feel so much better now!

George P.