Hi Sean, Some of the later HMV No 4's have a pot metal back. The front was never pot metal so you still have to be careful as some of the mixed ones do not want to come apart.
The first US No 4's were all brass, then they went to all pot metal. You can tell by the bearing/needle bar holder, they are much larger on the pot metal ones. The No 4 is nice as it sounds better than the No 2 or Exhibition and the No 4 can also be used to play electrically recorded records. The US No 4 box advertised the Orthophonic phonos. Steve > I recommend the UK Number 4s over the US ones by far, only because they > aren't pot metal! I think only a very limited run of US ones weren't pot > metal, no? I keep mine around basically as a "player" on my XXV and III > and > VI, sounds much superior to an Exhibition and when I'm done, the original > goes back on the machine. > > Sean
