Jim, you might get more response on your Capehart questions by posting
to the Electrola list. Electrola is dedicated to owners of just the kind of
early electric phonographs that you own:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/electrola/
But I can answer some of your questions. Yes, the early magnetic
pickups do exhibit considerable "needle talk" compared with modern pickups.
But if your pickup has not been rebuilt, it CERTAINLY needs to be. If it is
not rebuilt, the rubber suspension parts have hardened and the lack of
compliance with ruin your records in just one play!
Yes, you need to find something other than common steel needles for use
with record changers. The Victor Tungstone needles (and similar tungsten
wire needles from other manufacturers) were the best choice for changers of
this vintage. The electric record players of the mid 1930s up to WWII were
notorious for inducing massive record wear, mostly due to the poor
characteristics of the electric pickups and the improper needles used with
them. In spite of the preponderance of the sapphire so-called "permanent"
needles often found with these machines, these needles are the WRONG choice.
These early pickups are much too low compliance and track at too high a
force to use a hard jewel-tipped needle correctly. I recommend using
tunsten wire needles for ALL of these record players if you want to preserve
your records. Unfortunately, nobody makes these needles any longer, so you
are faced with the choice of using steel needles and changing them with ever
one or two plays (which negates the advantages of owning a record changer),
buying tungsten wire needles when you can find them, or making your own
needles. Since I am a record changer collector and have a number of these
old electric players, I make my own tungsten needles. I'm not geared up to
make them in quantity, so it's a tedious process. But they are worth the
effort if you really want to use these players.
The circuit diagrams for nearly every early consumer electronic product
and quite a lot of mechanical repair information concerning the Capehart
(and other early) record changers can be found in the Rider's Perpetual
Troubleshooting (PPT) Manuals. These manuals were the mainstay of radio
repair shops during this period up to WWII when that information business
was taken over by Howard W. Sams. (Sams is the place to look for info on
most postwar electronics, but they didn't publish anything on prewar
models.) You can find the individual PPT manuals offered on eBay (there
were 23 HUGE volumes in total), but the simplest and cheapest source of this
information is to buy the scanned and digitized PPT manual collections
complete on CD or DVD. These are also offered by several sellers on eBay
and can usually be had for $10 or less for the ENTIRE collection. Another
good source of early record changer info is the Rider's book titled
"Automatic Record Changers and Recorders". This was a single volume
published in 1941. These also appear often on eBay.
Greg Bogantz
----- Original Message -----
From: <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 1:11 PM
Subject: [Phono-L] Capehart
After many years, my 1937 Capehart 404G (serial number 10627E) is now
functioning & sounds great & is fun to watch as it changes
records. I have noticed quite a bit of "needle noise" in the magnetic
pickup when the volume is turned down even though the pickup
has been restored. Is this endemic to a properly performing Capehart as
I suspect because all the doors to the record playing
compartment are sealed with rubber gaskets, presumable to contain
mechanical noise or does the pickup need further work? Also,
where can one obtain needles for playing large numbers of 78s without
being changed in the Capehart or Orthophonic Victrola 1050?
I have Mr. Baumbach's excellent book on the Capeharts without which the
repairman who usually works on 1950s & 1960s hifi gear
would have been completely at sea in working on the Capehart changer but
would like to obtain copies of the owner's manual &
schematics of the tuner & amplifiers.
Jim Cartwright
Immortal Performances
[email protected]
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