The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hey all,
Found this beat up Edison C19 from an original owner (or at least the grandson). Mechanically, the unit has all of it's parts and it plays but the finish is alligatored and badly damaged. When he played it for me, it sounded OK but was skipping a lot. I found that the tracking rack bracket is bent up so a little tweaking should get that back to working right. So it is going to be my next project and looking forward to work on it as I like the Edison DD machine complexity compared to the Victor machines that I have rebuilt. The original packing/inspection sheet was stuck back behind the album storage racks and so I don't have to guess what finish the unit had originally.

I have to say that this phonograph is one of the heaviest units i have worked on

more pics http://s1179.photobucket.com/albums/x38 ... 0Refinish/

That will be a nice machine when done. I'd love to see it when restored and cleaned up. Good luck with it.
Harvey Kravitz

I admit, I have a soft spot for C-19s, I brought mine back to life from it being hit by a truck and knocked over on it's front. It was in much worse shape than yours is, all I did was Go-Jo the cabinet repeatedly until all the junk came off the old dirty finish (it was nearly black!). You may want to try that with yours as it really doesn't look like it needs refinishing (just my humble opinion!)

I'll put two pics of mine up, one before and one after a good clean / polish / waxing.

Good Luck!

Sean

I love that style too...though I don't have one.

It's a truly distinctive cabinet- no one else made anything like it.

OrthoSean wrote:I admit, I have a soft spot for C-19s, I brought mine back to life from it being hit by a truck and knocked over on it's front. It was in much worse shape than yours is, all I did was Go-Jo the cabinet repeatedly until all the junk came off the old dirty finish (it was nearly black!). You may want to try that with yours as it really doesn't look like it needs refinishing (just my humble opinion!)

I'll put two pics of mine up, one before and one after a good clean / polish / waxing.

Good Luck!

Sean

Nice C19 Sean. Is that Kansas City Kitty I see in the before picture?

Valecnik wrote:

OrthoSean wrote:I admit, I have a soft spot for C-19s, I brought mine back to life from it being hit by a truck and knocked over on it's front. It was in much worse shape than yours is, all I did was Go-Jo the cabinet repeatedly until all the junk came off the old dirty finish (it was nearly black!). You may want to try that with yours as it really doesn't look like it needs refinishing (just my humble opinion!)

I'll put two pics of mine up, one before and one after a good clean / polish / waxing.

Good Luck!

Sean

Nice C19 Sean. Is that Kansas City Kitty I see in the before picture?

Ha! That's Capital District Otis, if you must know!

I wish I could have found the pics I took of the C-19 right after I took it off the truck, they showed the filth much better, I realize this before shot makes it look pretty decent, trust me, it was horrible but well worth the effort!

Sean

Valecnik wrote:

OrthoSean wrote:I admit, I have a soft spot for C-19s, I brought mine back to life from it being hit by a truck and knocked over on it's front. It was in much worse shape than yours is, all I did was Go-Jo the cabinet repeatedly until all the junk came off the old dirty finish (it was nearly black!). You may want to try that with yours as it really doesn't look like it needs refinishing (just my humble opinion!)

I'll put two pics of mine up, one before and one after a good clean / polish / waxing.

Good Luck!

Sean

Nice C19 Sean. Is that Kansas City Kitty I see in the before picture?

I'm still giggling about Kansas City Kitty!

Microtrol, I see that your C-19 has speed control knob on the upper left portion of the turntable. The Speed controls were dropped after 1926. The Pre-1926 units all had them. Edison was trying to save money and simplify things, so the speed control was dropped in 1927 which was pretty much the last year of production (1913-1927), even though Chippendale units were still sold and "cleared out" until Edison closed its doors in October of 1929 due to the advent of Radio. The Chippendale model was one of the most produced, longest running, biggest money maker Diamond Disc machine for Edison. Personally, I like the speed control.

Tony K.
Melbourne,FL

I've always loved the C250/C19 look too. Now that I have my A250 I may go hunting for one some of these days. I actually rented a truck to go pick one up about 50 miles from here a few months ago on the strength of some not very good Craig's List pictures, but when I got there the finish was so bad I turned it down.

Of course from the look of my ever more crowded condo, I might have to set it out on the balcony or stack it on top of my VV-XVI if I bought one!

Clay

Interesting motor board. The hardware and brake looks very simmilar to the questionalbe grafonola for sale in an antique store I posted questions on this forum about a week ago. I knew it was a hodgepodge of parts after thinking about what I was looking at.

It looks like your board is wooden and recesses away from the cabinet interior. This one I was looking at was black metal and setting raised above the cabinet interior but the same stye and hardware, right down to the levers and brake style in the front of the board.

This is my first look at the inside of your type of edison. Looks nice!