woodroffe celestion electro-magnetic pickup 1927 full article

[herrickpickups]

https://www.herrickpickups.com/origins- ... ckup-1927/
Iv'e just put this article together from family descendants of the designer as well as some images of the man himself. It's not before time that J.B.Woodroffe got the credit he deserves for the Gramophone add-on pickup design he collaborated on with the Celestion speaker Company almost a Century ago. Hope it's well received, it took a while to get the info .

[Orchorsol]

Great to see this, many thanks Martin.

[need4art]

Hi Martin,
Thank you for bringing this information to us. I have always been interested in the E.M.G. machines but probably will never own one-in fact here in the wilds of Arizona I have never even seen one. But listening to these machines on YouTube it is impossible to not be impressed.

The reproducers you are making are true works of art-they are wonderful to just look at!

So here is a question-and it may be sacrificial to ask this-could one of your reproducers be used on an orthophonic machine such as a Victor Credenza or Victor 10-50?
Thx Abe

[herrickpickups]

Hi Abe, thanks for the kind words, The E.M.G guys pointed out in their own Ad's from the period Magazines that their Soundboxes would improve any Gramophone, the same is true with the Meltrope types, it's just the Tone arm size that can be a problematic area. The Sound boxes I built are approximately the same on the rear tonearm fixing as the Meltrope fixing, so any tone arm up to around 19mm would be fine. Iv'e just finished the very last batch of these soundboxes , made in the EMG 4 spring type, the diaphragms are now thinner at 0.1mm & much louder & clearer, I'm really pleased with how they turned out as they are a punishing amount of work & concentration when made in small batches. I'm really happy that people like them.

[need4art]

Hi Martin,
Please check your PM's
Abe

[herrickpickups]

ok but please bear with me as I didn't find it before, Thanks

[herrickpickups]

The Woodroffe Celestion pickup Story is now more-or-less complete & there are a couple of extra sections as well as a list of supporting articles at the foot of the page. If anyone out there has something Resembling a Woodroffe Celstion pickup, perhaps in a slightly different form from the standard type I would be very interested in seeing an image. According to the Woodroffe Descendants, The designer made his money by the early 1930's & basically never had to work again , yet he still bothered to put a small ad in the Wireless world magazine in 1933 that offered a service to rebuild & set-up a "tired" Woodroffe Celestion pickup, & at his home address . This for myself tells that the Designer was very pleased with what he had done with the Celestion speaker company some 6 years before. To date I have never encountered a Woodroffe / Celestion pickup with dead coils, that's not something I could say for a vast number of other early pickups. Anyway, I hope this article is of interest.