Emo-Fan
09-04-2011, 06:00 AM
A number of years ago, I restored a 1918 Victor Victrola IXa. These are the ones that have the horn inside, under the motorboard. (Wealthy people back in the day regarded those large funnel-shaped horns outside the device as an eyesore. Those, by the way, were the first Victor models, including the famous Baraud painting with Nipper and "His Master's Voice". That, I happen to know, was a Victor Model B. Today, it'd be worth thousands if you had one in good shape.) Anyway, mine has a 2-spring motor (thus the lower case "a" designation above), so you can play about 10 minutes on a single winding.
Department of Serendipity.
I was in an antique store this summer. They had a Victor Victrola VI, a smaller tabletop version in solid oak with a single-spring motor. It'll play about 5 or 6 minutes on a single winding. It needed no restoration, just a lot of TLC, and a governor part for the motor. An easy fix.
It is from 1912, so it's almost 100 years old. It doesn't sound quite as good as the other post-World War I model, because there were design improvements--particle board covered by red English mahogony in a quarter-sawed tiger stripe design as opposed to solid wood oak, and a few other improvements. (Speaker fans out there know that you never build speakers out of solid wood planks; the solid oak model has some motor resonance in the cabinet.) Pre-WWI had more solid construction, though, because there was no shortage of building supplies such as wood, until the war started.
I'm sure the antique dealer didn't know what he had, because the price was really low, so I grabbed it.
My wife suggested that I get duplicate exemplars of the same shellac record or records, synchronize the two Victrolas, and play 'em both together, thus yielding Victrola stereo. (It'd be possible, because I have strobe discs for 78, and, although there'd be some flanging or chorusing effects due to the ever-so-slight speed variations between the two, the effect would be pleasant, if not true stereo.)
So how about it? Anyone have two copies of the same shellac record that they'd like to split with?
(File this post in the dead thread department.)
Department of Serendipity.
I was in an antique store this summer. They had a Victor Victrola VI, a smaller tabletop version in solid oak with a single-spring motor. It'll play about 5 or 6 minutes on a single winding. It needed no restoration, just a lot of TLC, and a governor part for the motor. An easy fix.
It is from 1912, so it's almost 100 years old. It doesn't sound quite as good as the other post-World War I model, because there were design improvements--particle board covered by red English mahogony in a quarter-sawed tiger stripe design as opposed to solid wood oak, and a few other improvements. (Speaker fans out there know that you never build speakers out of solid wood planks; the solid oak model has some motor resonance in the cabinet.) Pre-WWI had more solid construction, though, because there was no shortage of building supplies such as wood, until the war started.
I'm sure the antique dealer didn't know what he had, because the price was really low, so I grabbed it.
My wife suggested that I get duplicate exemplars of the same shellac record or records, synchronize the two Victrolas, and play 'em both together, thus yielding Victrola stereo. (It'd be possible, because I have strobe discs for 78, and, although there'd be some flanging or chorusing effects due to the ever-so-slight speed variations between the two, the effect would be pleasant, if not true stereo.)
So how about it? Anyone have two copies of the same shellac record that they'd like to split with?
(File this post in the dead thread department.)