The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hello all. I am new to this forum. I have a Victor 8-30 and I recently acquired a very nice 8-12 that is in great shape but found that the tonearm that was on the machine was not the original tonearm. It played but was too short. This machine has the bronze colored hardware. I recently acquired another tonearm that I was assured was from an 8-12 but it also is too short. I am convinced that the length of the tonearm for the 8-30 and the 8-12 should be tHe same. In fact outside of finish the tonearms are probably identical. Can anyone that may have both machines or some knowledge confirm this for me. It is pretty hard to find a replacement part when you don't have the original. I would greatly appreciate any help that you can provide. Thanks, MIKE

You may have one of those machines which was affected by a recall; the arms were too short. If the arm is correct, the needle will pass the spindle by about ¼" and be at right angles to the record grooves for the largest part of its travel. The correction was done often with different crooks which were provided; some machines had to be sent back to the factory to have their tone arms remounted. Hope I have all this right and that it may help you! John P.

Thanks for the information. What I would really would like to know is if anyone has an 8-12 machine, what is the length of the tonearm from pivot point to end. I believe it should be 9 ½ inches and what I have is 8 ½ inchese. Thanks!

Orthophonic wrote:If the arm is correct, the needle will pass the spindle by about ¼"

On my 8-12, the needle is just short of the spindle by about a quarter inch. The length of the arm measured across it from pivot point to the very end is indeed right around 9 ½", so your presumed measurement is correct.

Bottom line is that you want the sound box parallel to the grooves as much as possible over as much of the playing area of the record as possible. This simply means that the groove undulations move the needle side to side and not try to move it from front to back or at an angle to the diaphragm. If this is true, I wouldn't worry too much about the arm's length; most of the ones that gave trouble on earlier machines had tone arms that were too long. the needle was almost at a 45 degree angle to the grooves and no record can stand that very long!

Thanks! Now I just need to find one.