The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I recently acquired a VV 2-35 portable, which is similar to the more common VV 2-55. I would like to correspond with others who own one of these phonographs and share maintenance tips along with any experiences. Notice the comparison in the photo below.

(The information on the Victor-Victrola site has been helpful, as well as the page in the book Look For The Dog.)

Only 72000 VV-2-35 was ever made (in comparison to 334000 VV-2-55).
This is why we do not see them so often on eBay.

I own a VV 2-35 and recently did a lube and grease. I found it tricky and somewhat cumbersome to access the motor as I had to unscrew the entire motor board assembly from the case. Thinking I had answered the supreme question of "how to get to the motor", I then found that the motor was encased inside the steel orthophonic speaker housing. Well, I decided to remove the motor altogether and that allowed full access. Cleaning, oiling and grease was a snap. I don't have the confidence to remove, clean, and re-grease the drive spring, so....I left it alone. Just that amount of maintenance made everything run much smoother and quietly. To make things even better, I was able to put everything back together without a shortage, or surplus, of parts.

Correct me if I am wrong, as I only have worked on two portables (a Brunswick Panatrope and a Dulcetto). It seems to me that portables are harder to repair, because either parts are harder to find or the motors are harder to take apart. Maybe due to their low original sale prices, they were not supposed to be repaired if broken.

ewok wrote:Correct me if I am wrong, as I only have worked on two portables (a Brunswick Panatrope and a Dulcetto). It seems to me that portables are harder to repair, because either parts are harder to find or the motors are harder to take apart. Maybe due to their low original sale prices, they were not supposed to be repaired if broken.

From my experience, I would agree. I was told by Tim Fabrizio and Walt Sommers that orthophonic reproducers for portables weren't designed to be taken apart and repaired because they were cheap. Cleaning and lubing my VV 2-35 was a chore, but the results made an improvement.

I have one of these, also. The sound box is made of brass and is stamped together; hard to do anything with. The needlebar is folded sheet metal and the whole assembly is held to the tone arm by three studs; it rotated off just like a "normal" sound box. The sound box for the other is a standard orthophonic sound box with a felt and metal cover on it to diminish the sound from the side of the sound box's diaphragm that is opposite the tone arm.

I have one of each of these models, the 35 and 55. Both excellent sounding portables. I just finished a few weeks agin restoring my 2-55.
To make that case real nice, first take and reglue all the edge seems of the leatherette. Then after that dries use some nice kiwi black shoe polish on it, lay it on good and thick, let it dry and then buff it out like you would a pair of shoes, will bring back the luster and color and will look great.
Check the reproducer and see if the ball bears need to be redone and replace the back flange with a new one. I made a nice one out of silicone. Works great. The new back flanges they make are still to hard in my opinion and the silicone is about as close as you can get to the original gum rubber they used.
Have the motor regreased and serviced and you have a very nice portable. Was one of the best Orthophinc portables Victor made