And Made By....??

[Edward Huggins]

I sometimes wonder about those really obscure Radiograms made in the UK between the late 1940s and mid 1950s. Not the Plessey made products branded Westminster or Defiant or other familiar types branded Ace or Ambassador.

But who were PERTH? Who were AUSTIN?

Did these firms actually build their own chassis or were they subcontracted out so that the "Maker" could just assemble the chassis, autochanger, speaker into a self-made or 3rd party built cabinet?

[G6Tanuki]

There seems to have been quite a business in supplying wooden radio/radiogram cabinets - both by small 'jobbing' carpentry/joinery firms and the larger more-upmarket furniture-makers such as Waring&Gillow.

[Welsh Anorak]

In the Sixties every town had a furniture store, and among the three piece suites and wardrobes was often a 'lowboy' radiogram or maybe even a tape recorder or portable record player. They boasted unusual makes, usually sounding reassuringly British, which of course they were. The quality varied enormously, usually a BSR record or tape deck and a two-valve amplifier.
I imagine most of these were assembled by small firms. As long as the cabinet looked the part the innards didn't have to be a Hacker or Dynatron!

[electronicskip]

A lot of the radiogram cabinets and speaker boxes were made in the East end of London after the war along side bedside tables and wardrobes as a side line .

[Arthur2075]

It was the same in the 1920’s to 30’s. Numerous furniture companies would sell a cabinet gramophone made up of standard parts such as Garrard motors, Goldring sound boxes etc.I have one labeled an ‘Astoria’ and sold by Littlewoods based in Portabello Rd. Many turn up with various names. The cabinets are all very similar to an HMV 160.

[John10b]

When I was serving my apprenticeship in the late 50's I made several Record Players, well really I just put them together, there was plenty of decks and amps to be bought and a friend made the cabinets, we didn’t really make any money out of it but it was fun.
Cheers
John

[vidjoman]

Originally Posted by John10b

When I was serving my apprenticeship in the late 50,s I made several Record Players, well really I just put them together, there was plenty of decks and amps to be bought and a friend made the cabinets, we didn’t really make any money out of it but it was fun.
Cheers
John

I also made several record players while still at school and later as an apprentice in the 50’s. Homemade amps, usually push pull 6V6’s giving about 8 watts and driving an 8 inch speaker. Cabinets were home designed and the plywood cut to size by my friendly timber merchant, assembled by me and covered in Rexine. Normally fitted a Collaro or Garrard changer. Beat all the Dansettes of the day.

[Tractorfan]

Hi,
In 1953 my Dad bought a 'Beethoven' table radiogram. It was the usual three band chassis with 'H' series B7G valves and an internal frame aerial. It sported a Garrard autochanger.
I remember that it took ages to warm up and always had a quiet mains hum. I think that may have been due to it having half wave rectification (an HY90 rectifier).
I've often wondered about the history of Beethoven, and I was told that it had a Plessey chassis.
It gave us many years of joyful entertainment, both radio and records, and I still have it, tatty, but still working. An aunty of mine also had one, but that had a BSR deck.
I found the round badge under the motorboard a couple of months ago.
Cheers, Pete.

[dalgwcobl]

I built a couple of record players using the Mullard Unilex modules - a PSU, a pre-amp with tone controls and two power amps, all in plastic boxes and just needing simple wiring between them. You could just position the modules on a board (I think they even supplied a template for the layout and interconnections). Fed from a Sonotone 9TAHC cartridge and with about 5 watts RMS a channel output to a pair of twin-cone 8" speaker drivers, they sounded pretty good.

[TonyDuell]

I remember the Mullard Unilex. Yes there was a template sheet showing how to position the 4 modules, I think I still have it somewhere. There was also a control panel available, just the potentiometers for volume/balance/tone controls with open-ended wires soldered to them that you connected to the terminals on the modules. Or you could make your own from pots and wire.

The pre-amp and power amps were, I think, standard Philips/Mullard modules (I forget the LP.... numbers but could probably find them) fitted with screw terminals and put in the plastic cases.

I also remember one company (was it RTVC of Acton) cramming a couple of IC power amplifiers into the PSU module and selling that together with the pre-amp and control panel.

[camtechman]

In 1963 (after leaving school) I was apprenticed to Lebus Furniture & Cabinets (Ely estate Edmonton North London).

At the time, all I did for the first months was making cups of tea, sweeping the floor & work benches & Once a week I attended Tottenham Technical College. Around that time Lebus announced a combined wall cabinet that had compartments for a R2R Tape Recorder & Record Player and storage slots for LP's.