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Old 17th Aug 2017, 9:41 pm   #1
zillerfish
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Default Beau Decca is a bit odd? advice please...

Hi,

I have acquired a Beau Decca but the radio section is not removable.

The scale is vertical (ie goes from front to back immediately to the right of the turntable), and the wavechange switch rotates the scale in what looks like a square section plastic 'tube' It certainly looks original and has the PX4 amplifier section.

Was this a very late version or a very well executed Frankenstein mutant?

Ed denovan
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Old 21st Aug 2017, 11:42 am   #2
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Default Re: Beau Decca is a bit odd? advice please...

I have added a photo to hopefully get a response to this thread ...also note that there are 8 different wavebands on the rotating scale (not 4 as first thought)

Ed
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Old 21st Aug 2017, 12:25 pm   #3
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Default Re: Beau Decca is a bit odd? advice please...

The layout looks similar to the one in the Decca Decola.

Lawrence.
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Old 21st Aug 2017, 12:25 pm   #4
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Default Re: Beau Decca is a bit odd? advice please...

Personally I've never worked on one but there are screws visible to the right hand edge which probably allow the removal of the chassis complete with the wood panel. There are also 2 screws visible in the photo, and probably 2 more near the back, that probably hold the chassis to the wood panel. You would need to remove the knobs to get the chassis out that way.
Perhaps some one who has worked on one will be able to confirm whether my guess is right.
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Old 21st Aug 2017, 12:54 pm   #5
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Default Re: Beau Decca is a bit odd? advice please...

The tuner section looks very much like the Decola 8-Waveband RF Unit shown on Radiomuseum.

http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/decca_2...and_rf_un.html
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Old 21st Aug 2017, 6:32 pm   #6
zillerfish
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Default Re: Beau Decca is a bit odd? advice please...

Thank you for all responses...sure does look like you guys have nailed it. I am now wondering if the 8 waveband unit was offered as an option, or became standard at some point in time. Anyone with contemporary literature who can shine some light on the question?

Ed
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Old 21st Aug 2017, 11:42 pm   #7
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Default Re: Beau Decca is a bit odd? advice please...

Hi,

When the Beau-Decca was first released, it was only a record player, and the standard tuner was an optional extra, the earliest version did not even have the record storage doors at the bottom. I have heard that it was the same for the Decola, so a previous owner may have bought the tuner unit separately, either new (possibly remaindered stock) or got one from a deceased Decola.

Either way, it is a hell of a tuner, and with a long wire aerial should easily pull in short wave stations from all over the world. At the time a Beau-Decca cost nearly as much as a small car, and a Decola was the same price as a modest cottage in the country!
Regards,

Rick.
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Old 22nd Aug 2017, 7:06 am   #8
Ted Kendall
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Default Re: Beau Decca is a bit odd? advice please...

Judging by the Garrard laboratory changer, this is probably late production, unless the turntable is a replacement.
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Old 22nd Aug 2017, 11:56 am   #9
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Default Re: Beau Decca is a bit odd? advice please...

If this is a Garrard AT6 it will most certainly be a replacement.
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Old 22nd Aug 2017, 1:55 pm   #10
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Default Re: Beau Decca is a bit odd? advice please...

Yes I'm sure the deck is a replacement.

I am fortunate to have another Beau in my collection which I intend to restore in the near future. This is a 1948 model,in original unrestored condition, in Birds Eye Maple, it isbeautiful indeed!

For this I have the original December 1948 bill of sale from Frankons, Notting Hill Gate sold to Mrs Plant of Ladbroke Grove. The price of the Beau was £159-9/2 plus £9-13/6 for the birds eye maple veneer. She must have been pretty wealthy to afford it. Interestingly there is a Rotary Converter at £15 on the bill as well. Not sure why?

Ed
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Old 22nd Aug 2017, 2:02 pm   #11
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Default Re: Beau Decca is a bit odd? advice please...

Presumably a DC only supply?
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Old 22nd Aug 2017, 6:31 pm   #12
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Default Re: Beau Decca is a bit odd? advice please...

If I've done my sums right, that price (£169.17 approx) is equal to over £13000 of today's money!
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Old 22nd Aug 2017, 11:08 pm   #13
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Default Re: Beau Decca is a bit odd? advice please...

I've tried three online inflation calculators, and they reckon it to be closer to £6000. Still a lot of money, but I guess you wouldn't have much trouble spending that on high-level sound gear these days...
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Old 23rd Aug 2017, 8:09 am   #14
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Default Re: Beau Decca is a bit odd? advice please...

My calculation was based on the assumption that £5 per week was a reasonable wage in 1948, whereas at least £400 would be the equivalent today, Tom. Maybe my figures are wrong!
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Old 23rd Aug 2017, 8:35 am   #15
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Default Re: Beau Decca is a bit odd? advice please...

If you consider what people can own today, versus 1948, it seems that wages have increased more than the prices of goods, so there will be a significant discrepancy between two methods of comparison. On the goods front loaves of bread and gallons of petrol have been long established technologies over the whole of the 1948 to now period, so they'd make a fair comparison standard. Radio and TV stuff has changed a lot over the period so they aren't a good reference, I think.

David

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Old 26th Aug 2017, 3:47 am   #16
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Default Re: Beau Decca is a bit odd? advice please...

Doesn't look like a Beau Decca. Beau Decca had a 'drop in' radio as an optional extra. If not fitted, there was a wooden panel to cover the hole. See Picture
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Old 26th Aug 2017, 2:21 pm   #17
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Default Re: Beau Decca is a bit odd? advice please...

The controls that come from the amp are sitting on the side rather than the back too.
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Old 6th Sep 2017, 3:49 pm   #18
zillerfish
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Default Re: Beau Decca is a bit odd? advice please...

I agree it is odd...but it is in a Beau cabinet (later verison with doors) and it is a Beau amplifier...my guess is a special order towards end of production run
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