Portable Selecta Gramophone Player
 

Hi

New to the forum - I recently picked up a Portable Selecta Gramophone Player (picture included)

Cost me £10 from a Charity shop and advertised as Non Working. Go it home, did a quick wind and it appears to work (nearly) without a record on it the turntable rotates fine - now I have some very old 12 inch records but when I put one on the turntable it slows down. So some newbie questions.

On the inside it does say The Double "11" one so I guess an 11 inch would actually be lighter and may do the trick?

If I strip it down and clean is there a recommended grease ?

Where can one find the history of the player?

Oh and if spares are required good sources appreciated.

Regards
John B

Re: Portable Selecta Gramophone Player
 

have you got needles for it, you can only play one side of a 12'' record, or possibly two sides of a 10'' before you need to change the needle, unless it specifically says otherwise on the needle packet. the worn needle will greatly increase drag on the record, possibly slowing the motor, and damaging the record. If the governor is not free to move on its shaft, possibly caused by dried grease, this will cause speed issues. The governor is the springy assembly with, usually, three bob weights attached.

Re: Portable Selecta Gramophone Player
 

further to above there is a felt pad which bears on the disc on the governor assembly, this pad should be moist with oil

Re: Portable Selecta Gramophone Player
 

That's got nothing to do with record size. 10 and 12 inch are standard record sizes for 78 rpm records, although there are several other less common sizes.

The problem may well be down to hardened grease in the encased main spring which is a job that you can't really do yourself as it can be quite dangerous - have a read through this thread that's running at the moment to get an idea of what could be involved, although the advice given in the previous posts by 'electrogram' should be followed too:-

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=148637

Re: Portable Selecta Gramophone Player
 

Thanks for the advice - really appreciated - Was Selecta a company or is this simply a model ?

John

Re: Portable Selecta Gramophone Player
 

Please don't take this the wrong way - you may be highly experienced in gramophones - but on the TV lately there have been gramophones displayed where the user is trying to play a record with the sound-box the "wrong side" of the player's spindle so the needle is trying to dig in to the disc rather than play it at a resting angle. Digging in would of course cause much more drag than the gently sloping contact point.

Hoping this is just an odd thought but in any case my comment could help other future readers.
Graham

Re: Portable Selecta Gramophone Player
 

Thanks for the advice, gave the whole thing, got some soft needles and it works a treat.

John