Still good buys to be had

[frglee21]

Hi All,

I bought a dial 722 Trimphone today for £7.50 in good condition but sold as not working. A peek inside revealed no strap or resistor between T4 and T5. Two minutes to fit a resistor and it's working fine. So, despite prices seeming to be going up all the time there are still some good buys to be had. Mind you, there was also a bog standard red 746 - at £105

Best Wishes, Lee.

[russell_w_b]

Originally Posted by frglee21

Mind you, there was also a bog standard red 746 - at £105

Ha! I can sell up and retire early!

I got a Siemens 366 bakelite neophone wall-mounted instrument at a car-boot a couple of years ago for fifteen quid. I've seen them advertised for just shy of four-hundred dollars on a US website. I think the reason it attracted so little interest was that it 'didn't look right' - handset placed across dial whilst telephone on its back - and so didn't fit Joe Public's mental image of an 'old' telephone, despite being of 1930s - 1940s vintage.

I also won, at our local saleroom, a wooden-cased GPO magneto ringing-generator type 4CN, 1920s vintage, for a fiver, simply because it was described as a 'transformer'. It was a general household sale rather than a specialist sale, which helped, as the dealers weren't present to rack up the prices.

Sadly, there's as many rip-offs to be had as there are bargains. Be careful...

[richwk1]

£105 !!! i'm not selling mine for enough. well done with the trim phone, i haven't worked on a trim phone yet. If i come across one at that price i might have a go. they have never really appealed to me but at that price you couldn't say no!!
What color by the way ?

[frglee21]

I think we could all retire, Russell.

Rich - I already have a early grey - sounds like tea - Trimphone but as you say, at that price I couldn't say no even though I already had a 706 tucked under my arm! It's two tone green by the way. They are a bit more delicate than 700's but easy enough to work on. Lee.

[richwk1]

Lee.. I will have a look at the car boots when they start by me and see if i can get one. The wife managed to pick me a nice cream 746 at one of the charity shops £6.40. Which i was pretty pleased about but not as good as the two tone Grey one i got on eBay this week for 1p ( yes, that's 1 penny ) although there was £7 post and packing buy heh !!! still a bargain.

[russell_w_b]

I have three trimphones: two with dials (722) and a LD push-button (766).

They were 'of their time', but were bldy awful things to use - the whole telephone body turned when an attempt was made to dial! As you will soon find out, the volume control must be altered (remove and reset the knob) if being used as a main telephone, so that the ringer cannot be permanently switched off. They were used a lot as bedroom extensions where the ringer volume was a handy thing to have.

You may find speech problems with the trimphone as the carbon microphones were not brilliant, and they tend to crackle a lot and give quiet output. An afterthought was to fit a shunt-regulator across the mic to prevent 'frying' on short lines. If you open your instrument up and find what looks like a loose tube of sweeties inside, that's it!

[richwk1]

Russel, sounds like the were an exercise in style over substance. The 700 series may have it's fault but it is generally an easy to work on and pretty well built old beast ( unlike it sounds, the trim phones !! ) I picked one up ( just to look at ) at a fair some years ago now and i thought at the time it must be a copy as it seamed a bit loose and flimsy for an original. Maybe it was an original just not very well made. Can i ask you is there a mic upgrade for the trim phones the same as the 21a for the 700 series.

Rich

[russell_w_b]

Originally Posted by richwk1

'Can i ask you is there a mic upgrade for the trim phones the same as the 21a for the 700 series?'

Not that I'm aware of. The trimphone mic is designed to be mounted at the end of an acoustic tube (same as that used in GPO head and mic sets), hence its odd location in a trimphone.

There ought to be enough room inside the trimphone handset to mount a stripped-down and re-jigged T21 insert, however, with the electret capsule beneath the mouthpiece (rather than up below the receiver where the orig. mic was). I've never tried this, so you'll need to experiment.

A nice little project for you!

[AlanBeckett]

I think Trimphones are one of those things that you either love or hate. I've got a late one (dial) which is heavier and has bigger feet, and it works fine.
Alan

[mickash]

It's amazing what prices the type 200 and 300 bakelite phones fetch nowadays.
When I was a lad (mid 1970s) type 300 phones were being sold for £1 and type 200 were going for just 50p as they didn't have a bell.
I was only on meagre pocket money in those days so couldn't afford any.

Michael.

[russell_w_b]

Originally Posted by mickash

It's amazing what prices the type 200 and 300 bakelite phones fetch nowadays.
Michael.

Indeed. When I were a lad (teenager, actually, 1970s) I bought two 200 series, of which would now be described as 'new-old stock', from A. W. Youngs of London (a camera shop) for 50p each! Both in waxed wrapping, complete with desiccant bags.

The last 'bargain' I had was as late as 1989, when Bull Electrical were still selling the last of ther 300-series instruments (by then somewhat grubby but intact) for a couple of quid each. I think I bought four, and got two complete workers out of it.

[richwk1]

It is getting harder to get a bargain anymore ( my 1p 746 not withstanding) and it is very very easy to get ripped of if you are not careful. An unfortunate sign of the times i think !!
I think i fall into the hate camp as far as trim phones go but i should get one and give it a fair hearing, i might change my mind. I will probably have to post a few questions to you all who have more experience of this model than i do. the only one that appeals to me is the two tone green variant or possibly the ivory with the chocolate brown handset (if that was an original color not a made up one)
Was there ever a version made that had a speaker on/off switch would anybody know.

Rich

[AndiiT]

Hi,
I have had a few good telephone purchases form car boot sales, such as a 332, complete with original cord and junction box for around £8, a Planset A and extention phone for 50p each, and a good condition Bellset 1 for £3.00 so, as the title of this thread suggests, there are still some good buys to be had.

On the subject of Trimphones I don't think that there was ever a version with a speaker on/off switch; I believe that the only additional items that were available was an add on push button switch assembly for shared service/recall signalling and an additional internal gravity switch for C wire or certain types of extention plan working.

Regards
Andrew

[frglee21]

As Russell says, Trimphones were "of the time". A coloured 200 shouts Art Deco at you. It's the same with Trimphones, they look late 60's/early 70's even if you don't know when they were manufactured and - for now - you can still find them , and 700's of course, at reasonable prices at car boots etc. (not 1p or 50p yet though!) I've only seen one bakelitelite 'phone at a car boot sale in the past 3 years - it ain't in a car boot sale now

I don't think I'd get ripped-off these days but I do find I'll buy a telephone then find there's a bit missing that costs about half the price of what I paid for the 'phone to replace - must take a screwdriver in future!

We are going through a "retro" phase where most things pre-1980's are desirable so I suppose it's inevitable that prices are going to climb, so give one a try Rich while they're still faily cheap but make sure it's got a good earpiece if you want to give it a "fair hearing" ..... Sorry!

Regards, Lee.

[russell_w_b]

Originally Posted by richwk1

'Was there ever a version made that had a speaker on/off switch would anybody know?'

What do you mean by a 'speaker on-off switch'?

If you are referring to the tone-ringer, then yes, it was possible to turn it off. There is a volume switch at the front with four positions. You may find, though, that yours only has three positions. That is because if the trimphone was the main telephone in the premises, it had to be heard to ring. To this end an adjustment was made to the volume control (which is reversible) whereby the knob could only be turned to 'full' or 'quiet', and not off altogether.

See here for details.

[frglee21]

I think what Rich might be getting at is; the usual method of, as Bob Freshwater puts it, "making a confidential aside" is to cover the mouthpiece with your hand. As you'll know Russell, this wouldn't work with the Trimphone as the microphone is in the earpiece next to the receiver. I think Rich is asking if the facility was available to turn off the microphone.

Regards, Lee.

[russell_w_b]

Originally Posted by frglee21

'I think Rich is asking if the facility was available to turn off the microphone.'

Oh?

I've wired my 746s (those with a push-button) and my 710 so that I can short out the mic during a call; a 'secrecy' button. Trickier on a trimphone, as you'll need one with an 'add-on' switch.

Or you could just rotate the dial to '1' and short out the mic with the DON contact - trouble is, the receiver will short out as well.

[richwk1]

Sorry guys
I didn't make myself very clear - Lee is correct in guessing i meant is there a way of making a secrecy button.

I was aware there is a ringer volume button but as pointed out putting your hand over the mouth piece won't work on a trim phone to mute the mic

There are occasions when i don't want the caller to here me cursing !!!!!

At least on here if people ask stupid questions ( me on occasion) they can't hear you swearing in the background !!!!

Rich

[AndiiT]

Hi,
Muting the transmitter on a Trimphone would be possible with the additional auxilary switch normally open contacts connected across T3 and T10 of the transmission board. The switch is non - locking though so would have to be held operated during any "confidential aside".

Locking switches are available for the 706/746 series, and with the 710/740 series a non - locking switch can be made to lock by adjusting the latch plate settings.

The Trimphone auxilary switches (switch 13A) sometimes crop up on eBay and a picture of one is shown Here

Regards
Andrew

[Millay_2010]

There are bargins out there, but things are getting more expensive, I was at an my local church hall auction, a green 746 and two tone brown 706 (spares only) and I won the pair at £24 i had expected to pay around £2. A friend before the auction got a 232 with smashed cradle for £3 and a 332 in good nick for £3. The amabassador is a little secret at the moment as they normally have the electronic transmitter and cost less than a transmitter on its own.