The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I'm curious--How many Columbia Symphony Grand Graphophones are out there and what variants exist? Was there ever any documentation such as an instruction manual? I know that there were two basic styles. One has four doors for record storage. A second style has some kind of roll-out side with record racks. This style is illustrated in one of Fabrizio and Paul's wonderful books. In fact George P. posted a picture of the second style on the forum back in 2010.

The ads that typically appear show the first style, as do Columbia's ads to dealers in the "Music Trade Review." The Herzog cabinet design patent 38,669 also shows the first style as well. Were there other small variations, such as the location of needle storage, motor used, etc? Does anyone have any other information on these curious phonos? I do remember an excerpt from some music magazine on the net describing when the first models were put on display in New York.

Would owners of Symphony Grands mind sharing pictures so we all can compare notes? Has someone gathered any data on those surviving phonos? It would be interesting to see pictures of other examples. Mine is the style with four doors. I bought it from an elderly collector in Mena, Arkansas in 1974. He said it came from a mansion in New York.

Sorry--I managed to upload all the pictures in reverse order.

Steve

What a beautiful grill. I think there is one on Ebay right now. I'm not sure if it's the same model as yours but, I think so.

Wow, what a stunning machine! Congratulations!
Andreas

Thanks. It has a tapering tone arm, I understand in violation of Victor's patents of the time. That, combined with the 13.5 inch horn makes it a very good playing machine. It's the primary machine I use for playing non-orthophonic records.

Steve

Rexophone wrote:It has a tapering tone arm, I understand in violation of Victor's patents of the time.

Columbia and Victor had cross-licensed each other more than once by the time the Symphony Grand was introduced. The tapering tone arm was used by Columbia under license from Victor.

George P.

Thanks George. I didn't realize the tapering tone arm was one of the patents in their cross-licensing agreements. Why did Columbia revert to such skinny little tonearms from shortly after the time of this machine through much of the 1920s? It would seem obvious that the more robust arms found on Columbias of this vintage were preferable. I always figured the skinny arms were due to Victor pressuring Columbia on that patent.

Steve

I'm not sure of the rationale behind the skinny tone arms, but I suspect Columbia was doing everything possible to lighten the lateral resistance. That's just a guess, though.

George P.

Thanks! Their later tone arms would certainly be lighter than the cast aluminum arm used here.

The tonearm setup looks very similar to that of a rearmount Reginaphone. I am curious to see just how it is secured to the cabinet.

Wes

The first picture pretty much shows the mount. That nickel plated bracket and foot has a screw that holds it to the shelf inside the cabinet. Here are two more pictures of that bracket.