Wind up gramophone
 

Spotted this in a charity shop, Newark Nottinghamshire.

Re: Wind up gramaphone
 

Hmm.... that appears to be an LP on the turntable, I suppose people these days don`t know the difference.

Re: Wind up gramaphone
 

And more like 1920s than 1940s.

Re: Wind up gramophone
 

It is a 10” vinyl on the deck but they didn’t have any 78’s and it does look the part. There are a couple of spare ‘heads’ with it.

Re: Wind up gramophone
 

All the same Terry £80? It's not really a very attractive wrongly dated player. It's good to see what's actually going on out there though, so thanks for posting. I objected to the price of a book in a Bexhill Charity Shop a few years ago... well over the top! The bloke in charge was not very charitable about my offer, even though I was a regular customer. He said [patronisingly] you see, we now get them checked out by an "expert" to avoid being exploited.

I said we used to have a real Book Dealer in this town. The clue was in the name and we always came to some sort of an arrangement. You are supposed to be a Charity Shop with benefits not a Corporate Organisation with fixed rules. Ignorance is bliss I suppose>:(

Dave W

Re: Wind up gramophone
 

If someone tells the shop it's a 1920s record player, not 1940s, how long do you suppose it would be before the price got revised upwards?

:-)

David

Re: Wind up gramophone
 

The look of that 10" seems to suggest that they have actually played it on that wind up! Those early LP's were nothing like as flexible as later LP's. Believe it or not they will actually play on a wind up! If you have a junk one, give it a try. John.

Re: Wind up gramophone
 

With how you see record playing equipment posed in shop windows and photographs, I feel lucky whenever I see one with the tone arm facing the correct side of the turntable.

David

Re: Wind up gramophone
 

I certainly wound the speed control down and played one on my first gramophone when I was a kid!

It was a 10" Eartha Kitt LP and I played it about half way through until I noticed the texture of the record surface changing where it had been played. I still have that record (and the gramophone as it happens) and the record still plays (but on a proper deck and with a stylus of course) and although the part of the record that was played with a steel needle on the gramophone plays acceptably, it has audibly been spoiled with added distortion. The gearing on a gramophone is such that the governor doesn't spin fast enough and there's an awful lot of 'flutter' at 33 rpm. They did actually make a specially geared clockwork gramophone motor to play special 33 rpm records, I think for the film/cinema market.

That gramophone shown in the charity shop looks to have a Swiss Thorens double spring motor fitted and it dates from the mid 1920s, but the price is very optimistic for what it is, although it looks to be in very good condition, so you never know!

Re: Wind up gramophone
 

I remember trying to play a 7" 45 on my late granddad's portable 78 player. It completely ruined it, generating spirals of black plastic. I have noticed that some 78 wind-ups have a tone arm that pivots in one dimension only, with only a few inches at the needle end being verticaly compliant. In ours, the entire tone arm pivoted, and so might have exerted a higher force on the records.

Re: Wind up gramophone
 

I have a identical model in my music/front room, needles are available on eBay, but not the bamboo type sadly (gave a softer tone)
Nothing and I mean nothing sounds like the real thing, even if you record the output Analogue or Digital it loses the essential sound.
If you like George Formby, or similar singers, it is the only way to go.

They were never solid Oak a very good veneer Why apart from cost Oak is poor as a sound transmitter, ply is good!

Re: Wind up gramophone
 

Even the experts are guilty! Taken from a very expensive but comprehensive history of Decca...