The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hello all:
Here's a video of my latest favorite player, just finished with superb electronic restoration by board member ChuckA. Though at the end of the 78rpm era (1949) I hope you enjoy it!
Bob
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBQWZ4IwaKk[/youtube]

This is a wonderful machine for sure.. As usual for me I had one way back when.. It was a darker cabinet and earlier I would think. I took it to several record player shops around town and no one ever fixed the thing to make it go. Being a rather heavy cabinet I ask a young fellow who I worked for his dad some to help me pick the thing up and bring it home. He said he loved to work on old radios and phonographs and would like to take a crack at it. We took it to his garage and in 30 minutes he had the thing working like new and two shops had it over six months and proclaimed it unfixable. I guess you either have a talent for this type of thing or you don't. I never did my self. I used it for some time but it tended to chip a record pretty badly now and then. Plus if I recall the amplifier part went out eventually and I ended up scraping the cabinet and installing it in a large set up I had using an amp and speakers. It worked pretty well but finally it gave out as well and the changer went in the dumpster somewhere in the 70's. I would never do that now, but then it was sort of a white elephant and for most changers today I have the same problem, no one seems to fix them so they stay running. I have two fine record changers I had pretty good money into and neither of them is working correctly after less than a year. Story of my life an one of the reasons I tended to stick to mechanical machines most of it. I could usually at least keep them running. You have a wonderful looking and sounding Capehart, hope you have continued good luck with it.

Larry

Fabulous! The recorded sound is fantastic. And they just don't make 'em like Ella anymore. Love it when she starts to "scat." She and Nat Cole were ones of a kind: impeccable phrasing and rhythm, and they couldn't sing out of tune to save their lives---always spot on pitch.

Just curious, as an occasional SWL: how's the SW reception on the 31-25-19 meter bands? Is there an external antenna connection?

You've got a wonderful piece there---congratulations!

P.S. Remind me once, what do those FM tuning numbers (200-300) mean? Couldn't be kH or MHz.

Bob,

That's just beautiful! I hope to find one of these one day, they not only sound fantastic, but they're cool to watch in operation.

Congrats!
Sean

Wow, what a great machine! If I ever branch out from crank machines, that will be very high on my want list. Congrats on a great restoration job!

That is a beauty.

I'm not usually admiring of those honky changers of the olden days, but I can make an exception there. That's top of the line stuff, immaculately restored.

Henry wrote:Fabulous! The recorded sound is fantastic. And they just don't make 'em like Ella anymore. Love it when she starts to "scat." She and Nat Cole were ones of a kind: impeccable phrasing and rhythm, and they couldn't sing out of tune to save their lives---always spot on pitch.

Just curious, as an occasional SWL: how's the SW reception on the 31-25-19 meter bands? Is there an external antenna connection?

You've got a wonderful piece there---congratulations!

P.S. Remind me once, what do those FM tuning numbers (200-300) mean? Couldn't be kH or MHz.

Thanks, all, for the nice comments!

I'm not knowledgeable about the shortwave bands, but the tuner seems to function just fine...I'm listening to some Spanish station at the "12" mark right now, using just the cabinet's loop antenna. There are external terminals, but I haven't hooked anything up yet.
Though the tuner receives modern FM broadcasts I believe the FM numbers on the dial were simply for reference, and this machine came with sheets of stick-on call letters for favorite stations. They'd never been applied: As I mentioned earlier, ChuckA did a fine job with the electronics. I serviced the changer myself.
Bob

Such lovely machines! Don't you love the tuning eye as it winks at you when you tune up and down the dial? Capeharts were not common up here....not that they're common anywhere: I've seen precisely two in all my collecting years : one was an empty cabinet and the other had been updated to play lps with non Capehart turntable. The repair shops up here in the 60's were vile. Anything made before 1950 was deemed " unrepairable" and " junk" when usually the amps just needed new filter capacitors costing about a dollar. They got away with it...hoping to sell you a new hi fi or radio....because of the legacy of the " Hydro change over" up here in the 50's when Ontario Hydro changed the power supply from 25 to 60 hz. Because every motor in the province had to be replaced or re-wound, the perception was that the older equipment was obsolete which was certainly not the case with electronic stuff.

JRT

Henry wrote:P.S. Remind me once, what do those FM tuning numbers (200-300) mean? Couldn't be kH or MHz.

FM band was divided into "channels" starting at 201 = 88.1MHz to 300 = 107.9MHz. Each increment in "channel" number was equal to a 200KHz increase in frequency which is the
separation between FM stations.

Chuck

Thanks for that info, Chuck. Wonder why the "channel" numbers were 200-300? Was it just arbitrary? (As an aside, IIRC the entire FM broadcast band lies between VHF television channels 6 and 7, but those TV channels have no relation to the FM channel numbers above AFAIK.)

Just looking again at the Capehart turntable, I'm impressed by that beautiful tone arm design! Given the offset "S", and the mounting point of the arm at that remove from the tt, gives a tracking radius that would seem to very closely approach straight-line, in effect. Amazing!