The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Just putting it out there ever few months... Always curious about european phonographs, especially odd swiss-like machines. Also, always looking for Mammut Grammophon parts or complete machines. If you have anything, do let me know. Thanks

The Swiss made nice machines. They had loads of experience in building good spring moters, being the foremost upplier of music boxes since the middle 1700s and quickly picked up making gramophone parts. Most gramophones were assembled not in Switzerland, but in Germany, using components from Thorens and Paillard. Be aware though that most have been 'modified' over the years, quite often when they were still actively used. Horn gramophones were sold far longer than in the U.S. and after WW1 many were in a not too great condition. Many have replacement horns and non-original soundboxes. Most were sold for a much lower price than the 'big names, so don't expect high quality. They are quite nice to look at though. A good one should cost around $500 and the horns are often decorated quite nicely. The pirated 'Expositon' soundbox was a faithful imitation of the Exhibition, with just enough changes to refute claims from Victor and HMV. The best sounding and loudest European gramophone was of course the Pathé. They used a relatively simple technique, but got great results. Like the Citroen 2CV, which was so simple that nobody believe it would work, but it did and it stayed in constant production even longer than the VW beetle. They stopped preducing it, because it took too many hours of manual work to produce it. The same happened with Renault's R4. It was still quite popular, but simply couldn't be produced at a fair price.