Most of you probably don't know me. I don't belong to any of the phonograph
clubs, but I've been quietly following the various phonograph newsgroups
over the years, have popped up with a question once in awhile, and tonight
after reading everyone's storys thought I'd share mine too.
You see, I'm basically a radio collector who's discovered lots of other
interesting things while looking for radios. My story probably starts in
the 10th grade Electronics shop class where we learned how a 5 tube radio
works. When my aunt heard about this she gave me an old broken wood radio
and I fixed it! Then grandma gave me a couple, a neighbor gave me one, and
after I fixed them all I sold the two I didn't like at our summer garage
sale. That started a buy/sell pattern that has continued to today since it
brought in a little money to spend on more fixer-uppers at the Salvation
Army store from their 50-cent radio pile.
By college I was also buying radios at a place called Central Auction and
one day they had a totally disassembled Edison Amberola 30 phonograph for
only $6 along with a blue cylinder record. The guy showed me one of the
parts and said that you put the record on that, the motor would make it go
around, and this other thing here had the needle in it and would play the
record. I didn't know anything about it, but it sure looked interesting.
At home, I figured out that the main piece of metal that all the other
pieces would attach to (the bedplate) was broken in half. Dad didn't think
it could be fixed, but I was sure it could be and took it to a local welder.
The welder explained that he couldn't weld cast iron and I was out of
luck. -- Bummer --. Well, I had a tube of Duco Cement that I had used to
glue rocks onto a sheet of styrofoam for my rock collection, and they were
stuck on there pretty good, so I figured I could glue the bedplate together.
I did, and few days later, handling that bedplate very carefully, I put all
the parts on it, tested that they moved properly, and mounted it firmly into
the cabinet. I wound it up a little and the motor ran! After adding a
little more oil and winding it up all the way, it actually played a record
all the way through!
I had that phonograph for about a year and really liked it, but I was
playing trumpet in the University of Minnesota pep band and the band members
had to pay their own way to go play at the 1976 NCAA hockey tournament in
Denver. That wasn't in my budget, so I reluctantly sold the Edison for $80
and also a few of my best radios, thinking that some day I'd find a better
cylinder phonograph that wasn't fixed with glue. (And, yes I did tell the
buyer that it was glued.) It all worked out - I had a great time in Denver,
our Minnesota team won the hockey tournament, I eventually graduated and
started my career as an electrical engineer at Sperry Univac here in
Minnesota, and with a good job I was able to afford better radios and some
phonographs too.
Some of my favorites today include an Edison Amberola 30, Amberola B-X,
Fireside A, several Gems, a Home in a vintage homemade or after-market
carved cabinet, a Columbia BV, and a couple of Lakeside cylinder machines,
plus Columbia AJ, BH, BN, Regents Desk, Edison C-450 Adam, Fairy Phonograph
Lamp, Pathe Actuelle J, Victor E, M, MS, and VV2-55 disk machines. I've
repaired and sold quite a few of the more common types of phonographs over
the past 30+ years, have learned quite a bit about them and how to properly
restore them. It has been a great hobby, and it always amuses me to think
about that first Amberola 30 that I glued together!
-- Greg Farmer
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