The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

It's time to tell stories on ourselves. I'll start by telling a story on myself at CAPS.

I was walking around CAPS looking at all the swell things for sale and i spotted a wood grained metal horn with a screw end. At first I thought it was for a Columbia machine but the threaded end was a bit larger. Then it hit me that the horn was for a Star Talking Machine. I thought todays my lucky day. At home I had a Star machine and the outside of its wood grained horn is a bit rough so I thought the CAPS horn would be an upgrade. I asked the seller if he would take $125 for the horn and his reply was "show me the money!". I walked away the proud owner of a very nice oak wood grained Star horn. When I returned home, I compared the two horns and they were identical in size. My problem... My machine is mahogany and I purchased an oak horn.

Anyone have a OAK Star Talking machine for sale? The condition of the horn is unimportant. Jerry Blais

I'll chime in. I was transitioning into refining my phonograph collecting from anything I could get my hands on to being more selective. In looking for phono's I came across a few disc music boxes and thought that I would like to add one to my collection one day. A very very nice floor standing Regina with a full set of metal discs appeared at a local auction house. Ebay live auctions was new to the scene and we were having company over during the auction so I decided I would try for it online. The auction house posted the catalog a day before the auction and they had separated the discs into 4 separate lots of 20 discs each. So the auction came up, I had my laptop logged in, I had my top price in mind, and I was ready. The music box came up and bidding started at $500. I clicked bid and the next thing on the screen was the current price that way above my top price. I sat and watched bidding climb and the hammer finally drop at a little over $20,000. Nuts! Next up, the first lot of metal discs. I jumped in, got out bid, bid, outbid, bid, out bid, bid, out bid, bid, WON! Hurray! Then it hit me? What am I going to do with a lot of metal discs that I don't have a machine for and probably never will be able to afford? Well I held onto them for a couple of years then I unloaded them for half of what I paid.

A senior moment for sure

Brad, you have my sympathy. I guess we've all bought high & sold low at some point.

My senior moments haven't been as expensive or exciting, but I have bought records thinking "wow, what a cool tune" only to find out later that I already had it.

I'm sure I've had many senior moments, but I can't remember them!

George P.

Great stories! I had a big senior moment just yesterday. I was working on a motor to a tabletop Grafonola a couple nights ago. I found that one of the governor bearings had come loose at some point allowing the governor shaft to fall out of place. The thing must have whizzed like crazy because there was gummed up grease on everything. I tightened the bearing and adjusted the governor. I wound it plenty thinking it would run, but the grease was so heavy on the gears, everything needed to be taken apart and cleaned. I quit for the night and yesterday, started back in again.

Without thinking, I loosened one of the bearings holding the governor shaft. I didn't even think about the fact that I had cranked the thing the night before in an effort to make it run. Once the governor gear cleared the other gear that drives it, it was over. All three spring barrels whizzed violently throwing, no...spraying grease everywhere faster than I could react. I had speckles of grease from head to toe. It covered my clothes, was on my shoes, all over my face and there was even some in one of my ears. I threw my arms up because it startled me with how violent it was and my arms were covered.

Letting the springs wind down completely before removing any motor components is a lesson in phonograph repair 101. I've never made that mistake and don't think I ever will again. My wife just shook her head when I walked in from the garage.

Does it count as a senior's moment when I put a record on the stairs in preparation to take up and scan for a post on this Board and then stepping on it? SNAP! That was the demise of a Canadian Victor pressing of the Whiteman Rhapsody in Blue that has the electric recording on side A and the acoustic on Side B. Mercifully they're not rate.
Jim

Lenoirstreetguy wrote:Does it count as a senior's moment when I put a record on the stairs in preparation to take up and scan for a post on this Board and then stepping on it? SNAP! That was the demise of a Canadian Victor pressing of the Whiteman Rhapsody in Blue that has the electric recording on side A and the acoustic on Side B. Mercifully they're not rate.
Jim

Yep, that'd be a senior moment all right...

One of my many would be when I bought a Victrola VI several years ago from a guy who was really old enough to be entitled to some senior moments. The price was right, I'd not started collecting long before and was very happy with it. Got it home an realized it had no motor, hadn't had one for years.

The guy of course took it back and returned my money. Said he'd try to find a motor and sell it back to me at the same price but for whatever reason that never happened...

Don't know if this is a senior moment, or just plain stupidity, but I was working on a victorian era music box I once owned. I believe the maker was L'Epee, but that's beside the point. Anyway, I was adjusting the screw that held the governor in place FORGETTING THAT THE SPRING WAS FULLY WOUND. Next thing I knew the cylinder played all six of its tunes (about 12 minutes worth of music) in less than one second. Mercifully, the only damage was a few bent pins, which were easily straightened out again.