 sj |
||
|
||
BS: Wind-up Victrolas
|
|
|
|||||||
|
BS: Wind-up Victrolas |
Share Thread
|
||||||
|
Subject: BS: Wind-up Victrolas From: Wesley S Date: 22 Oct 12 - 01:52 PM I was just curious about these classic old machines. I regret not asking for the one my Grandparents owned - but that was a different time. Does anyone own one now? Were they just used to play 78's? How difficult is it to restore one and get parts? I assume that no one is making reproductions. And how long did they run after you cranked it up? |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Wind-up Victrolas From: Rapparee Date: 22 Oct 12 - 02:13 PM Flat disks, not cylinders, right? |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Wind-up Victrolas From: pdq Date: 22 Oct 12 - 02:25 PM A tue Victrola dates from 1901 through late 1929, when the Victor Talking Machine Company was bought by RCA. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Wind-up Victrolas From: Ebbie Date: 22 Oct 12 - 02:29 PM In 1951 or so, my mother came home with an old wind-up machine. It was in a tall cabinet and came with a stock of 78rpm records. We had a great time with it. I have no idea what eventually happened to it. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Wind-up Victrolas From: GUEST Date: 22 Oct 12 - 07:22 PM I had one recently but I gave it back to the owner who has more room for it. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Wind-up Victrolas From: Bobert Date: 22 Oct 12 - 07:28 PM There are plenty of 'um out there for cheap that still work... $150... Records, too... B~ |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Wind-up Victrolas From: katlaughing Date: 22 Oct 12 - 09:48 PM yep, what the one-armed tractor wrestler said. my sis used to collect them...really NEAT and fun! |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Wind-up Victrolas From: Bill D Date: 22 Oct 12 - 11:07 PM My father acquired one (tall, floor standing) when I was maybe 11-12...the spring was broken, so I spun it with my fingers...the only record I remember was "Mr Gallager & Mr. Sheen".(I think there were only 3-4). Eventually it went away... I have no idea why or when.... |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Wind-up Victrolas From: GUEST,.gargoyle Date: 22 Oct 12 - 11:29 PM Ditto the LafKat. A true delight for children and adults. I prefer the one sided 78's for play. Be aware... without regular use ... it may appear you have "broken " the spring ... when it wizzes and clangs...this is only a default mechanism...to prevent "real damage." As a kid...I would play for hours and hours in the garage with ours. Use it today as a cocktail hour, curiosity piece to play ragtime. It grieves me to think of the mornings little Morgan could have €njoyed ... Sincerely, Gargoyle wondered for half a century...if the old needles could be "renewed " with a dab of garnet paper. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Wind-up Victrolas From: GUEST,.garvoyle Date: 22 Oct 12 - 11:37 PM Why this thread should be buried in the BS and some of current Trype exists for days and days "above the line " is a marvel of the clones. Sincerely, Gargoyle no comment ... just look. |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Wind-up Victrolas From: JohnInKansas Date: 23 Oct 12 - 12:11 AM An aunt, my dad's younger sister, had one of the "tall fine furniture" platter windups for a while. but I have no idea what happended to it. Based on experience with it, the answer to "how long will it play before you have to wind it up again" is "how fast do you want your music." I never got a chance to look at the innards of that one, and it apparently had a "governor" but it wasn't too effective once the spring started to slack off a little. A "guesstimate" would be that a single record would end the piece around 10% slower (90% as fast) as it started, unless someone jumped up and "gave it a turn or two" about half way through. I had no way of knowing if that was "normal" or whether that particular machine had a problem. The aunt only had a half dozen records, so the kids got tired or it in fairly short order, and it "went away" without explanation. The records that came with it had a distinctly different "look and feel" from later ones, but I never looked at whether the difference made the old windup incompatible with newer disks. The "mechanics" of the way the old ones played the records would suggest that you wouldn't want to use the old "windup" to play later 78s that you placed much value on. My granddad had an old(er?) cylinder player that IMO did a much better job of accurate playback than the disk player, but again that may have been mostly just the condition both machines were in when I got my first look at them. (Grandpa also had about 30 cylinder records with much more interesting stuff on them, which might have affected the opinion of a ten year old kid(?).) The cylinder player ended up in my dad's "stuff" but by the time it arrived there several key parts were missing, possibly to salvage someone else's old player. No clues ever known as to what happened to the cylinder records. Our "hobby tours" of antique shops have not found more than a very few (all none working) of either kind displayed, and the suspicion would be that nearly all the salvageable ones have entered the "collectors' circles" where they're only available for trading between those with particular interest in that particular kind of items. (You seldom see barbie dolls in the shops either, at least here, since "barbie collectors" clubs have them all.) John |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Wind-up Victrolas From: olddude Date: 23 Oct 12 - 01:16 AM My doc buddie had a beauty ... He got it from his mom's house along with a bunch of watch repair parts that his dad who use to fix watches before he passed away in the 60's ... threw the Victor out and the parts in the dump. I could have screamed ... He said if I knew you wanted them you could have had the parts and the victrola... grrrrrr if you find one , I have an Amish buddie that fixes them |
|
Subject: RE: BS: Wind-up Victrolas From: Will Fly Date: 23 Oct 12 - 06:42 AM When I was a kid I used to go up the road to my grandparents' house - and my treat was to play the 78rpm records on their 1930s wind-up gramophone (approximate UK word for victrola) - a wonderful machine on which I heard stuff ranging from Spike Jones to Wagner. It was shaped like a box with a curved lid, and the volume control was two doors which opened out at the front of the cabinet. One winding of the handle would last about 5 minutes, the playing arm was solid steel with a little brush just in front of the needle. You could buy either bamboo or steel needles, and we used steel, which lasted for about 2 dozen sides or so before it had to be changed. When I was 13, I was given the gramophone and all the records. When I left home to go to college in 1963, I gave it to my younger sister who, when she left home, gave it to the youngest sister. When my youngest sister married, it became a door stop and many of the records were lost. Anyway, my youngest sister got divorced and gave me back the machine and the remaining records as she had no space for it - and it sits in my garage as I write this. The veneer's not in good shape, but the mechanism works fine so, my project for next year is to get the external parts restored to new and bring the old thing back to life again - 80+ years after it was bought. |
