<--- Losing faith in phonographs, Mr. Cantankerous speaks

[MicaMonster]

Hello. My name is Wyatt, and I am here to confess my phonographic sins.....erm, rather,....no, that isn't right. I think I'm here to vent a little, but also give some insight into my sensitivities and stubbornness concerning phonographs and vintage recordings. For whatever value you may find in my ramblings, you may very well conclude that I'm a Looney Tune. I don't know what it is about me lately. I've collected phonographs for a substantially shorter time than the "deities" of this hobby. I have had a LOT of very interesting machines and recordings in a very short period of time. Additionally, as a highly experienced antique phonograph technician (my last major career change), I have been able to work on and perfect a vast array of phonograph rarities and mechanical contrivances. Really, I've run the race. From tinfoils to an Edison C-2, and everything (literally) in-between. Massaging Pathé weirdness to sound angelic, decoding the complexities of a 24-cylinder coin-op, and obsessing over the sensitive-to-the-touch adjustments necessary to make a Higham Graphophone blast notes like trumpets.

I strive for perfection, and take no short cuts.

Granted, I'm a "kid" by many standards, although I do have gray hair showing. I worked my tucus off to get to where I am today. I attribute most of my monetary "abilities" to being what Garret Girmus coined as being a "dealing collector." Wouldn't you buy a cylinder recording for $5 and sell it for $500 if it would bring you $500 closer to purchasing a Graphophone coin-op? I have never really considered myself a "true" collector, because of this. "True collectors," as I have observed, would pull a second mortgage on their house to acquire a phonograph collection, and in some cases, would sell their cars (and/or divorce wife) to get that most elusive Class-M or Parlor model. Those individuals have the collecting passion that I now lack. My passion is repairing and restoration. Always will be. When I repair a machine, I don't have the urge to keep it. I quickly want to acquire a new challenge and start on it ASAP. I lose sleep over it. I obsess over it. It affects my life, my momentary sanity, and it absorbs me. It did for a LONG time, and now I feel my flame dimming.............

Maybe my resources are to blame. I've had much time on my hands these past 7 years. Maybe it is my willingness to easily part with money to purchase that next big restoration project or rare Edison Disc record? Few people here can claim what I can. I've spent at least $20,000 in the past 4 years on Edison Diamond Disc and Needle Type records. I've made many friends in the hobby, but I regret having lost a few new friends recently, due to my manic buying and selling whimsies. Some of you know this. Some of you think I'm a smug little hoarder. (I might be). I am a bit "crazy" when it comes to Edison recordings, and there is a reason why. Yes, you can purchase a $5 DD "here," and a $25 "there," but when you are after absolute perfection, one sometimes has to pay "the price." The earliest Discs from the 1912-1914 era are by far my favorites, as they are the most perfect acoustic recordings I have ever heard.

My apologies to Emile Berliner.......but when comparing Vertically Cut recordings to Laterally Cut recordings, it is like a round wheel and a square wheel rolling down a hill. They both do it, but one does it better. Something about destructive friction used to amplify sound, BY DESIGN, that I find very unappealing. And no matter now well it is done, even by modern LP standards, you can not fool the human ear.

Alas.......I digress.

I have sold off a lot of my machines, not entirely due to boredom, but to allow myself to travel the world a little more, and even pursue love. Records, I have learned, will always have someone to appreciate them. I was simply a temporary curator for their preservation.

I'm losing faith in myself. I'm losing that "urge" that kept me up late at night changing main springs and soldering pinion gears. What I need is a "re-charge," but the spark just isn't there. *sigh* I hope my outlook changes soon.

Kind Regards to all that made it to the end of this article. I needed an outlet.

Wyatt

[AZ*]

When my mother in law was alive, she would say, "Take it to the Lord."

Maybe that advice would help you.

[Shane]

I'm sorry to hear that your flame his dimmed. Everyone experiences a bit of "burn out" after a while on hobbies. The thing is, if you give it a rest, it will return eventually.

[gramophoneshane]

I agree with Shane...Most of us get over it at some stage, but it's usually only temperary.
Although I've been collecting for 30 yrs, I've had a couple breaks inbetween. I started at 13, but then when I was 18 I started working, going to clubs & dating my ex-wife. All these things pretty much put a stop to my hobby until after I was married, we'd bought a house & my son was on his way.
I was truck driving at the time, so I started stopping at antique shops every day & my collecting took off again. Even after my divorce, I still kept buying more stuff until about 10 yrs ago when I gave up work to move home & look after my mother. Lack of space & income once again put an end to my collecting until a couple years ago when I started selling junk on ebay & re-investing what I made in gramophone related items. Now days I just stick to a small gramophone/ebay budget pretty much, again from lack of space & funds.

My advise would be that if you do take a break, don't get rid of everything. Keep the best of what you've got & store it out of sight out of mind. As long as you don't need to cash everything in for a house or a private jet, it's as good as money in the bank. Chances are that once you settle down with a partner & have kids etc, you'll eventually find you've got more time on your hands to enjoy a hobby again.
Even if you are a dealing collector, unlike a "dealer", you seem to have a genuine interest & enjoyment in the old machines & music, so I can see you returning to it eventually.
You can always sell off everything in 10 or 20 years time if you decide you'll never return to this field of collecting.
It's kind of a not putting your eggs in one basket thing.
You could sell everything tomorrow & bank the money, then the next day the banks collapse & you're left with nothing anyway, so it never hurts to have something good socked away.
If you decided a break did you good & you want to get into it again, at least you'll be starting with a few quality items too.
Can you imagine trying to rebuild your diamond disc collection in 10 or 15 years?
Even if you could find all those disc's again, it would take 5 times as long & probably cost 5 times as much.

[Valecnik]

Wyatt, Nothing wrong with taking a break, or even exiting the hobby, travelling the world, pursuing love, whatever. Nothing wrong with being a restorer or a "dealer-collector" as opposed to a true collector either. All of us contribute to the hobby in different ways and gray hair is not a requirement, (although you trust me you will get there).

If you are not getting what you want out of the hobby, take a break, move on, whatever but also don't forget you've not just bought and enjoyed. You've aquired alot of knowledge and passed it on and you've given many people the pleasure of hearing what an acoustic phonograph can really sound like, properly adjusted and tuned, not to mention having given many people the pleasure of interesting conversation and correspondence about topics thier normal circle of friends cannot contribute to.

Cheers,
Valecnik
PS: If you future plans include travel we would be happy to show you around Prague. Warning: you WILL HAVE TO TALK ABOUT EDISON PHONOGRAPHS and you may well have renewed interest in the sweet sound of a perfectly tuned reproducer on a 1912 diamond disc after an afternoon touring with my noisy 3 year old and five year old!

[larryh]

Wyatt,

I often tire of things I am collecting after they pile up. I mentioned that to you when I showed you the few items I still own after many years of collecting. Now there is the word "Collecting". I have come to realize that for me the fun is more in finding things than owning them. Unfortunately that also means spending money rather regularly. Some times that realization of the money I have often seemingly wasted buying high and selling low gets me down. Of course that doesn't always happen, at times I make a few bucks on something I part with, but most likely take a slight loss to get it out of the house. The phonographs have always fallen in that category. I really don't enjoy having rooms full of machines. But none the less I still don't see a machine I wouldn't like to clean, up get going and listen too. After that, well it just sits somewhere till I decide to part with it.

I think that are a lot of people somewhat in that class. Others wouldn't part with a thing. The records are pretty much the same, buy em, hear em and sit em on the shelf! After a while it gets out of hand and I want to move many of them out. In that process I can easily tire of the whole affair. Right now I am torn between hearing that new record and figuring out how to put away the ones I just got.

Sounds like you don't have exactly a wish to be done with phonographs, maybe just suffering a temporary boredom with it. If you don't want a lot of things sitting around there is nothing wrong with keeping a few favorites, your still able to enjoy some degree of your collecting that way. I always find a room cleared out of too many things quite refreshing after a while. Now if I could just figure out how to keep from looking for yet the next purchase things would perhaps be better. But once the phonograph bug bites your usually smitten for life it seems.

[bbphonoguy]

It's okay to get tired of a hobby. It's a hobby for cryin' out loud. If you don't enjoy it, then why bother? I used to be passionate about collecting. I craved this machine and that one. If I saw one I couldn't afford I would yearn over it and visit it as often as possible. Now, I don't want any more machines. I am glad to admire other folks' collections, and if I see one that's truly a bargain and won't cause financial hardship to buy, I'll get it, but I don't go out looking anymore. If I do see a machine out in the wild, and find myself wanting it, more often than not, I'll talk myself out of it. I just don't want to live in a museum anymore.

[Neophone]

Wyatt,

I think every response so far has been thoughtful and informed. I can pretty much only add that I agree. I think of our interest in any hobby as an "ebb and flow" sort of thing. I think most of us have various hobbies we to one extent of another migrate between. It is inevitable that most of us will at some point take a break from our hobbies I think.

To my mind at least, this particular hobby is very wrapped up with the friendships I have made among fellow collectors and '08 wasn't a very good year on that front all in all. I myself have, in a way, taken a short break.

We all fall in love with different aspects of this hobby, some like the machines, some the music. Some of us are collectors some of us are restorers. Some of us are hunters and others custodians. The differences are to be celebrated-for in bringing together all the various facets of our passion do we really learn and preserve this facinating page of history and make some wonderful friends along the way.

Just remember-your knowledge and passion, not your age or time "logged in" nor the opinions of others or the examples you can collect define you and your place in this hobby.

If you decide to take a break I can only say-don't get rid of any once in a lifetime machines or recordings and when you decide to come back we'll be here waiting-Lord willing.

Keep the coals banked!

Regards,
John

[martinola]

Actually Wyatt,
It sounds like a good thing is happening. Perhaps I'm reading this into your post, but it sounds like you're saying that the hobby is no longer driving you. I think it's healthier for you to drive your hobby instead. From a selfish standpoint, I hope you stay in the hobby and continue to offer reproducer tuning, etc., But only do that if you get some satisfaction out of it. Maybe you're facing what we all must face: once you have all of the machines and records you want; do you enjoy them? It's certainly worth pondering and I appreciate your bringing it up. Lastly, don't forget that it's almost Spring and there is much to see and do that has nothing to do with phonographs!

Martin

[Steve]

I went through this exact same thing 10 years ago and withdrew from the hobby completely for 5 years. In some respects I wish I'd never gone back! I've spent way too much money in the past 5 years and for what reason, really? Okay, I now have some machines I could only have dreamt of 15 years ago but it will cost me 5 times what anything's worth in the long run and I have to question if it's worth it or not. I'm not sure it is.

I get so much out of it though but there are also times when I look at all the machines together and ask myself why do I have so many similar machines and not just the odd one or two. I am not a big collector compared to many here either but the more you get, the more you want because that is what it is to be a collector. An example for me would be the HMV speed tester. I have 4 of them but a few days ago I was browsing Ebay for something else when I saw yet another one I didn't have. By that I mean it was very slightly different to all the others I have. So guess what? I had to buy it! And I have to say getting it was a real thrill but once it arrives it'll be placed in a drawer with all the others. Will it affect my life in a purely positive way? I doubt it. In a short time, I'll be counting through everything wondering why I have another one!

Collecting represents a derangement of the senses. Your whole perspective gets muddled and you can't view everything you do completely rationally. I think a break or hiatus is a good idea and I recommend it to every collector. The length of time required will depend on the individual and the commitment made to the hobby prior to the break.

When I "came back" I immediately consolidated my collection and "re-booted" it. It did me wonders mentally and maybe I need another break right now to sort through my horde.

I'm passionate enough about the hobby to keep everything now but maybe I shouldn't buy anything else for a while. It's a natural process and completely logical to take a step back and re-evaluate everything.

If I woke up one day and had no interest at all in this stuff anymore, I wouldn't hesitate to sell everything. I'm not on a mission to serve anyone else or to achieve some higher goal. We need to remind ourselves from time to time that this is JUST a hobby and not a substitute for having a life.