The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Today I received an otherwise nice original oak Edison Amberola V and the rear grille was smashed in shipping. The upper works and motor had obviously dislodged during shipping and smashed the fragile rear grille. The upper works and motor were loose but intact.

PLEASE...if anyone has an original oak Edison Amberola V rear grille, please contact me. Willing to pay an honest price for one. I'd prefer not to have a reproduction rear grille (if there is such a thing) as I'm not good at all with stain matching and am hoping to keep it original.

Hope someone out there can help.

Doug

Naw, just get yourself some Elmer’s white glue and take your time, and it’ll be fine. Any replacement you find will likely also not have stain that matches.

PeterF wrote: Mon Feb 24, 2025 6:38 pm Naw, just get yourself some Elmer’s white glue and take your time, and it’ll be fine. Any replacement you find will likely also not have stain that matches.

I agree. Some very careful and patient reassembly and good clamping may get some nice results. Save every little piece of this puzzle.

(I like yellow carpenter's glue)

Luthiers are good at repairing this sort of damage.

Thank you all for the encouraging comments. I'd really prefer to get another original or good quality reproduction oak rear grille for my Amberola V if possible. I suppose if finding another grille fails in a reasonable time I will resort to having the grille repaired. If it comes to that it will always bother me that it had been repaired but it would be better than having no grille at all. Thanks again.

Doug

Thanks Jerry. I bought it.

Doug

Good luck matching the finish and patina. Save the original bits for when you’re done with that.

PeterF wrote: Thu Feb 27, 2025 5:45 pm Good luck matching the finish and patina. Save the original bits for when you’re done with that.

It can be done. Not by myself, but some folks are great at this.