Hi Bruce ~ Your story about the previous owner forgetting about the original boxed reproducer reminds me of an Edison Home model D that I bought at a yard sale around 1987. I had just bought an old player piano at the sale and noticed that there was a box of 78's, so after looking through them (nothing special) I asked if he had any record players for sale. It was mostly household items, and I didn't see any, but thought I'd ask anyway.
He said no, but then a neighbor who was helping out with the sale said "yes you do, Bob, that one in the back closet of the kid's room -- You know, the one with the carrying handle?". I was picturing a suitcase portable as I followed him into a long-disused, cluttered room. He had to move a couple of things, and there on the floor of the closet was a nicely preserved Edison Home model D. Under the lid it still had the reproducer-change label and the pin stripes were a 9 out of 10. Model H reproducer installed. The wood case was dull and there wasn't much gold left in the front decal, but it was a complete, solid machine. I asked if he had the horn (it was otherwise complete except for the belt). I had to describe it to him before the light went on in his mind. He disappeared and came back a minute later with a very beat up, but correct black petaled Edison Home horn. No crane, but who's complaining. He had no idea what to price the machine at, so I offered $200 which seemed to make him very happy. Even 20 years ago, that was not a bad price for either of us. I was to return shortly with a borrowed truck and four strong friends for the piano, but for the moment, I was literally pulling away from the curb when someone shouted and stopped me. The fellow had just realized he had "some records" for the phonograph. So of course, I waited and a moment later he emerged with two boxes very full of 4 minute wax cylinders. There were about 70 or 80 of them. He said something like "if you're going to have the record player, you'd better have the records too". I asked how much, and he said "you can have 'em". I didn't argue. When I got home and took a closer look, I found that most had matching title lids, and nearly all were in beautiful shape. A typical mixed assortment with a few fun titles. Suddenly the $200 spent on the machine felt like much less. The phonograph needed only to have the belt made, and a minimal cleaning and lubrication followed by a a speed adjustment. The mandrel bearing and spring were both quite good. I put a nice horn on it, and I still have it today and use it regularly. Writing this remembrance makes me think about going in the next room and taking a fresh look at it. Thanks for the reminder about folks who -nearly- forgot something. Makes you wonder about all those who remembered too late for the buyer. Best, Andy On Jun 25, 2007, at 1:29 PM, bruce78rpm wrote: > ...I was fortunate that the party from which I acquired my A-250 > had also saved this unique Edison reproducer Box for all those > years. Oddly, they always used the machine to play standard 78rpm > records with a conversion tone arm and victor gold reproducer. When > I asked about the Edison reproducer, they seemed confused but then > said. "Oh, you must mean that odd looking thing in the black box > over here. We have never used that" > > Bruce From [email protected] Mon Jun 25 16:22:57 2007 From: [email protected] (Andrew Baron) Date: Mon Jun 25 16:24:19 2007 Subject: [Phono-L] Clarification on DD Metal Finishes In-Reply-To: <000a01c7b5a9$257abe10$af9bb...@vaio> References: <000a01c7b5a9$257abe10$af9bb...@vaio> Message-ID: <[email protected]> Getting caught up on some emails that I'd missed. Just to clarify, both of my A-250's and my A-200 have gold plated hardware as you might expect. My A-200 has a crank with a tiger striped copper / black finish, which naturally is not original to that machine. I think the confusion came in by combining photos of an early DD horn and other parts on the same page as the photos of the A-250 early / late details. Think of these as two different sets of photos, as they are from two different sources. Best, Andy
